Ted Cruz Rips Adam Schiff's 'Very Serious Strategic Error' During Day 2 of Impeachment Arguments
Sen. Ted Cruz made a compelling case Wednesday as to why lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff of California made a major blunder by arguing that President Donald Trump’s request to Ukraine to look into potential Biden corruption was a “sham.”
“The House managers made a very serious strategic error today,” Cruz told reporters on Capitol Hill.
“Adam Schiff’s arguments to open the day today directly drew into question Hunter Biden and made not only his testimony relevant, which it already was, but it is now critical,” the senator argued, “because the House Democrats have built their entire case on the proposition that any investigation into Burisma and corruption was a sham, that it was completely debunked.”
After @RepAdamSchiff’s arguments yesterday there’s no denying the #Senate needs to hear testimony from Hunter Biden. #impeachment #SenateImpeachmentTrial pic.twitter.com/NT6RG0w5vS
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 23, 2020
In other words, the Democrats affirmed the issue at the heart of the case is whether Trump was justified to ask about Joe and Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine, and Cruz contended there is “prima facie evidence” that he was indeed justified.
Hunter Biden was reportedly being paid at least $50,000 a month and possibly upward of $83,000 a month to serve on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings at the same time his father was the Obama administration’s point man for U.S. foreign policy regarding Ukraine.
During an official visit to Kyiv, Joe Biden demanded that a Ukrainian prosecutor who was overseeing an investigation into Burisma be fired before the vice president left the country six hours later or Ukraine would not receive $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.
Cruz pointed out that the House impeachment managers made much of Trump specifically mentioning the Bidens and the firing of the prosecutor during his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The reason Trump singled out this incident along with the broader issue of Ukrainian corruption was clear.
“Burisma was the only Ukrainian company that had the son of the vice president, that had real prima facie evidence of American corruption,” Cruz said.
“If you have a sitting vice president making public policy decisions to benefit his family to the tune of a million bucks a year, that raises a serious question of corruption, and a president not only is justified in asking for that to be investigated, but has a responsibility to see that that’s investigated,” the Texan added.
The longer House Democrats talk, the weaker their case gets. pic.twitter.com/LwTHK7ECBo
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 23, 2020
Cruz concluded, “The longer they talk at this point, the weaker the case is getting.”
A major problem with the Democrats’ case is that, unlike with previous presidential impeachments, no crime has even been alleged, much less proven, by the evidence.
Trump’s legal team filed a lengthy legal brief with the Senate on Monday calling the House Democrats’ impeachment effort an “affront to the Constitution” that should be rejected on its face.
Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution provides that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
The impeachment articles against Trump, which allege alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, don’t even come close to meeting that threshold.
‘President Trump isn’t being accused of crimes.’ @LisaMarieBoothe #ImpeachmentTrial #ImpeachmentHearings pic.twitter.com/kbZSHfwNeO
— The Western Journal (@WestJournalism) January 22, 2020
Taking on the issue of the Bidens’ potentially corrupt conduct, Trump’s lawyers wrote, “House Democrats’ accusations rest on the false and dangerous premise that Vice President Biden somehow immunized his conduct (and his son’s) from any scrutiny by declaring his run for the presidency.”
“There is no such rule of law. It certainly was not a rule applied when President Trump was a candidate. His political opponents called for investigations against him and his children almost daily,” the Trump legal brief reads.
The law of unintended consequences appears to be in play thanks to the Democrats’ myopic and maniacal push to impeach the president, now a little over nine months from the 2020 election.
Their trial is both strengthening Trump’s support and placing a spotlight on the Bidens’ shady dealings in Ukraine.
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