Following the third day of the Senate impeachment trial against President Trump, former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Thursday responded to the praise by mainstream media pundits for House impeachment manager Adam Schiff’s, D-Calif., opening arguments.
“If they mean senatorial-esque by being long-winded and just bloviating for hours on end, then mission accomplished,” Chaffetz, a Republican, told “Fox & Friends,” pushing back on soundbites from CNN, MSNBC and ABC News, where Schiff's speech was seen as “a great performance,” “dazzling,” and "very powerful."
“Jerry Nadler, in particular, lost me at sentence two or three when he started with ‘the facts are undisputed.’ Are you kidding me? Is there anything credible that he says after that to say that the facts are undisputed? I don’t think it’s effective at all,” Chaffetz said.
Chaffetz's comments came after Schiff kicked off the House Democrats' three-day opening case against President Trump by accusing him of trying to "cheat" in the 2020 election through his Ukraine dealings, following a raucous first day of impeachment trial speeches in the Senate that lasted into the middle of the night.
Trump "attempt[ed] to use the powers of the presidency to cheat in an election," Schiff, the top House Democratic impeachment manager, said in kicking off the House's case against Trump. He argued the only remedy is impeachment -- going so far as to question the legitimacy of this year's presidential election with Trump back on the ticket.
Chaffetz said that instead of the Democrats making an effort to win over a jury or proving the facts, their primary goal throughout their impeachment push was to “establish a narrative” that the Senate process was “totally unfair” and that Trump was going to cheat to undermine the 2020 election.
“It had nothing to do with actually proving the facts. There were no new evidence and I don’t think there was anything offered that was persuasive,” Chaffetz said.
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In a Fox News op-ed, Tucker Carlson mocked the mainstream media for being "deep in bliss" after hearing Schiff's opening statements.
"To the mouth breathers on cable television, Adam Schiff's speech is like a brainstem massage. Surging waves of ecstasy flood the central nervous system; linear thought ceases. All that's left are satisfied grunts of pleasure," said Carlson.
Fox News’ Marissa Schultz contributed to this report.
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