Failing to remove President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress would "render him above the law," a House prosecutor argued Monday in closing arguments at the president’s impeachment trial.
"Impeachment is an extraordinary remedy," Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., told the Senate, but "it is in the Constitution for a reason."
"In America, no one is above the law, even those elected to president of the United State," Crow added. "I would say especially those elected president of the United States."
Allowing Trump to get away with using the power of his office to try to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election, "putting foreign interference between the voters and their ballots,” would render Trump “above the law," Crow said.
Another of the House managers, Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., said another reason the Senate needs to take action is because the president has been "unapologetic and unrestrained," and will only be more so if the Senate closes his eyes to his misconduct.
"President Trump's constitutional crimes, his crimes against the American people and the nation, remain in progress," Demings said.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., alleged Trump has continued his misconduct despite being impeached for it.
"Donald Trump hasn't stopped pressuring Ukraine," Jeffries said, noting Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani recently "returned to the scene of the crime" to continue his efforts to get dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. And, Jeffries said, Trump "hasn't stopped obstructing Congress."
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He "is a clear and present danger to our national security," Jeffries said.
Mike Purpura, deputy White House counsel, told the Senate Trump did nothing wrong in his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and noted comments from Zelenskiy that he never felt any pressure to investigate the Bidens.
Trump lawyer Ken Starr said the House "didn't follow the rules" in their "rushed" impeachment inquiry, and therefore its entire case is fatally flawed. "It's why we don't allow deflated footballs or stealing signs from the field. Rules are rules," he said, referring to cheating scandals involving the NFL's New England Patriots and baseball's Houston Astros.
"It is not liberty and justice for all," Starr said, urging the senators to acquit.
Starr, the special counsel who advocated for Bill Clinton's impeachment, told the senators that if they vote to remove Trump, they'd be telling voters that "your vote in the last election is therefore declared null and void."
White House counsel Pat Cipollone hit a similar note, saying, "At the end of the day, this is an effort to overturn the results of one election and try and interfere in the coming election that begins today in Iowa." The "only appropriate result here is to acquit the president and to leave it to the voters to choose their president," Cipollone said.
Trump's lawyers appeared to be preaching to the Republican choir.
A super majority of 67 votes is needed to convict a president, and only two members of the Republican majority, Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, sided with Democrats on Friday in their unsuccessful bid to call relevant witnesses.
Some Republican senators, including Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said there's no need for witnesses because they believed the House managers had already proven their case, and that Trump's actions, while "inappropriate," aren't worth removing him over.
The president appeared to be watching some of the arguments, issuing a tweet with at least one misspelling, "I hope Republicans & the American people realize that the totally partisan Impeachment Hoax is exactly that, a Hoax."
Both sides have a total of four hours to present their arguments.
After closing arguments, the trial will adjourn until Wednesday, which will allow senators, who were not allowed to speak on the Senate floor during the trial, to deliver remarks about whether they are for or against the articles of impeachment.
Those speeches are expected to continue until Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET, when a vote on the two articles of impeachment — on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — is scheduled to take place.
The proceedings are the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, and the first not to feature new testimony from witnesses. Andrew Johnson's trial featured direct testimony from 25 prosecution and 16 defense witnesses, while in Clinton's trial, three witnesses were deposed on video, and snippets of their testimony were played during the trial.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he believes the verdict is already in on the Senate, saying the body is "guilty of failure to meet its constitutional obligations.” He said he hopes his Republican colleagues, if they have “any sense of respect for the institution,” would introduce a censure resolution against the President.
Van Hollen said such a move is necessary because Republicans' statements that Trump's actions are inappropriate are like saying “these constitutional abuses were the equivalent of a parking ticket.”
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