Schiff closes with plea to GOP on Trump: 'He is not who you are'

Source: The Hill | February 3, 2020 | Olivia Beavers

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) closed his impeachment argument on Monday by pleading with GOP senators to vote to convict President Trump, arguing that they are better than the president and that history will judge them poorly if they vote to acquit.

“Truth matters to you. Right matters to you. You are decent. He is not who you are,” Schiff, facing the seated Republican senators, said from the well of the Senate.

“History will not be kind to Donald Trump. I think we all know that. Not because it will be written by ‘never Trumpers,’ but because whenever we have departed from the values of our nation, we have come to regret it, and regret is written all over the pages of our history,” argued Schiff, the lead House impeachment manager.

“If you find that the House has proved its case and still vote to acquit, your name will be tied to his with a cord of iron and for all of history,” he said. “But if you find the courage to stand up to him, to speak the awful truth to his rank falsehood, your place will be among the Davids who took on Goliath.”

The outcome of the Senate trial is not in doubt: Trump will be acquitted on Wednesday, as Democrats do not have the 67-vote majority needed under the Constitution to convict him.

And while most of the statements made by both fellow House impeachment managers and the president’s defense team on the final day of arguments repeated points made earlier in the trial, Schiff’s remarks were notable in their personal appeal to the GOP senators. 

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“When the president tries to coerce an ally to help him cheat in our elections and then covers it up, we must say ‘enough.’ Enough,” Schiff said. “He has betrayed our national security and he will do so again. He has compromised our elections and he will do so again. You will not change him. You cannot constrain him.”

“He is who he is. Truth matters little to him. What is right matters even less, and decency matters not at all,” he said.

……..

“I hope and pray that we never have a president like Donald Trump in the Democratic Party — one that would betray the national interests and the country’s security to help with his reelection,” Schiff said, looking toward the Democratic side of the Senate. 

“And I would hope to God that if we did, we would impeach him and Democrats would lead the way.”

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