Schiff unloads on Trump the ‘despot’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump was labelled a “despot” and “tyrant” by Democratic prosecutors as they began a marathon 24-hour presentation of their case at his historic impeachment trial.
Congressman Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee whose probe into Mr Trump’s relationship with Ukraine has dogged the President for months, yesterday said the trial would prove he used his position “to cheat” in the upcoming election.
Mr Trump is accused of pressuring his Ukraine counterpart to investigate his 2020 political rival Joe Biden and his family.
He is being impeached on two counts: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
“President Trump solicited foreign interference in our democratic elections, abusing the power of his office to seek help from abroad to improve his real action prospects at home,” said Mr Schiff in his opening statement.
“President Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to a strategic partner at war with Russia to secure foreign help with his re-election. In other words, to cheat.”
He said the framers of the US Constitution designed impeachment to deal with behaviour such as Mr Trump’s.
“They knew what it was like to live under a despot and risked their lives to be free of it.”
Mr Schiff is one of seven Democratic impeachment managers who will present arguments to the Republican-held Senate for up to 24 hours over three days. Mr Trump’s lawyers will be given the same amount of time to respond.
Ahead of proceedings, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Democrats were on a partisan “crusade” to end Mr Trump’s presidency and overturn the 2016 election.
“If I were the President, I wouldn’t co-operate with these guys at all,” he said.
Although the impeachment trial could theoretically unseat Mr Trump, he again shrugged off proceedings, joking in a press conference at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that he would testify if his lawyers let him and that he’d like to be at the trial so he could “sit right in the front row and stare into their corrupt faces”.
Labelling Mr Schiff a “con job” and a “corrupt politician”, Mr Trump said he would not let former national security adviser John Bolton, whom Democrats want to testify at the trial, revoke his executive privilege to appear at the hearings.