WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday injected fresh instability into final preparations for the Senate’s impeachment trial, suggesting that senators should dismiss the House’s charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against him outright rather than dignifying them with a full tribunal.
As the subject of the charges on trial, Trump has no direct say over how the Senate proceeds and, by all accounts, Republicans do not have the votes needed to dismiss the case as Trump suggested, at least not before hearing opening arguments. Appearing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” before Trump’s tweet, Pelosi told senators considering forgoing a full trial that “dismissing is a cover-up” and asserted that whatever the outcome, the trial could never “erase” the stain of impeachment from Trump’s record.
“They take an oath to have a fair trial, and we think that would be with witnesses and documentation,” Pelosi said. “Now the ball is in their court to either do that, or pay a price for not doing it.” Congressional Republicans close to Trump also pounced on the speaker’s prediction, arguing that it betrayed the Democrats’ true motivation throughout the impeachment process: to build a case, any case, to slime Trump’s reelection campaign before the November election.