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Tempers flare at Trump impeachment trial – prompting Chief Justice Roberts to scold both sides
A marathon first day in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial erupted into a shouting match well after midnight early Wednesday morning, as Trump's legal team unloaded on Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in an exchange that prompted a bleary-eyed Chief Justice John Roberts to sternly admonish both sides for misconduct in the chamber.
A marathon first day in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial erupted into a shouting match well after midnight early Wednesday morning, as Trump's legal team unloaded on Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in an exchange that prompted a bleary-eyed Chief Justice John Roberts to sternly admonish both sides for misconduct in the chamber.
The spat began when Nadler spoke in support of the eighth amendment of the day proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's ground rules for the impeachment trial. Schumer's eighth proposed amendment, issued as the clock struck midnight, was to issue a subpoena for former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has reportedly described Trump's conduct as akin to a "drug deal." Each of his previous attempted alterations to McConnell's rules had been rejected by a united Republican contingent by a vote of 53-47.
Nadler said it would be a "treacherous vote" and a "cover-up" for Republicans to reject the Bolton subpoena, claiming that "only guilty people try to hide evidence." That prompted Trump's legal team to rise in response, with an animated White House counsel Pat Cipollone saying that Nadler should be "embarrassed" for the way he has addressed the Senate. "This is the United States Senate. You're not in charge here. ... It’s about time we bring this power trip in for a landing," Cipollone said.
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow hammered Nadler for suggesting that executive privilege, a longstanding constitutional principle protecting executive branch deliberations from disclosure, wasn't legitimate.
The outbursts prompted Roberts, who as Chief Justice of the United States is constitutionally required to serve as the presiding judge in the impeachment trial, to admonish both sides of the debate. Roberts called the Senate the "world's greatest deliberative body" and added that "those addressing the Senate should remember where they are." (Roberts was in for a short night of sleep: He's scheduled to preside over oral arguments at the Supreme Court at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday.)
Ultimately, the Senate adopted McConnell's framework for the trial in another 53-47 vote strictly along party lines. In total, approximately 12-and-half hours of debate marked the first day of Trump's Senate impeachment trial, which resumes at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday, with the impeachment managers expected to give opening arguments. Click here for more on our top story.
Other developments in Trump's Senate impeachment trial:
- Trump, in Davos, appears confident of Senate impeachment trial outcome: ‘We have a great case.'
- Andrew McCarthy: How both sides in Trump impeachment trial are undermining their own cases
- Alan Dershowitz rejects Pelosi's 'impeachment is forever' claim
- Trump, in Davos, appears confident of Senate impeachment trial outcome: ‘We have a great case.'
- Andrew McCarthy: How both sides in Trump impeachment trial are undermining their own cases
- Alan Dershowitz rejects Pelosi's 'impeachment is forever' claim
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