Trump Legal Team Hammers Jerry Nadler at Impeachment Trial: 'You're Not In Charge Here'
This is what fighting back looks like.
Since the impeachment process started, Democrats and their accusations have been allowed to dominate the mainstream media discussion over the actions of President Donald Trump that allegedly qualify to drive him out of office.
Their control of the House, and natural sympathy of the liberal media, gave them control over most daily news cycles.
But early Wednesday morning, on the floor of the United States Senate, two members of Trump’s legal team issued public denunciations of the Democrats’ case — personally citing House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler in particular.
And a viewer didn’t need to be a Trump partisan to understand exactly what they were talking about.
Addressing the senators, White House counsel Pat Cipollone led off the Trump team’s attack on Nadler.
“Mr. Nadler came up here and made false allegations against our team. He made false allegations against all of you. He accused you of a cover-up. He’s been making false allegations against the president,” Cipollone said.
“The only one who should be embarrassed, Mr. Nadler, is you, for the way you’ve addressed this body,” Cipollone said. “This is the United States Senate. You’re not in charge here.”
Check it out here. The whole video is seven minutes long, but for viewers who didn’t stay up late watching it live, it’s well worth the time:
After showing the Democratic complaints about the Senate calling witnesses like former National Security Advisor John Bolton for the farce they are, Cipollone got to the real point — the danger Democrats are posing to American democracy.
“The American people pay their salaries,” he said about the 3:30 mark. “And they’re here to take away their vote. They’re here to take away their voice.
“They have attacked the president, the executive branch. They have attacked the judicial branch. They say they don’t have time for courts.
“They have attacked the United States Senate, repeatedly.
“It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing.”
Cipollone’s conclusion was dead on:
“Mr. Nadler, you owe an apology to the president of the United States and his family. You owe an apology to the Senate,” he said.
“But most of all, you owe an apology to the American people.”
That was a tough act to follow, but fellow team member Jay Sekulow came up just as big.
He branded the Democrats — and Nadler in particular — “treacherous.”
“To shred the Constitution on the floor of the Senate, to serve what purpose?” Sekulow said.
He contrasted the hypocrisy of Democratic positions now on Trump’s claims of executive privilege with their willingness to accept the same claims from the Barack Obama White House — which was riddled with domestic and foreign policy disasters that dwarfed Trump’s Ukraine imbroglio, but never faced any serious impeachment effort even when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.
To Democrats, clearly, what is legal and acceptable from a chief executive depends on the political party he belongs to.
“That’s the way it works, Mr. Nadler? Is that the way you view the United States Constitution?” Sekulow asked.
“Because that’s not the way it was written. That is not the way it’s interpreted. And that’s not the way the American people should have to live.”
After months of Democrat-dominated hearings in the House — at first closed to the public, then openly manipulated by Nadler and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff — after weeks of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stalling on delivering articles of impeachment to the Senate, the president’s legal team is getting its voice heard.
It’s not likely to go well for Democrats going forward.
They might have run the House proceedings like a kangaroo court, or a constitutional nightmare out of Kafka, but they’re not in charge of the United States Senate, or the Trump impeachment trial.
And Trump’s team is fighting back.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
