Trump lawyer says Dems want to 'overturn' last election

[turbinetree]

Source: Associated Press

By ERIC TUCKER, LISA MASCARO and ZEKE MILLER
5 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyers opened their impeachment trial defense in a rare Saturday session by accusing Democrats of striving to overturn the results of the 2016 election, saying the Democrats’ investigations into his dealings with Ukraine were not a fact-finding mission but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House.

“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history,” White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told senators. “And we can’t allow that to happen.”

The Trump legal team’s arguments were aimed at rebutting allegations that the president abused his power when he asked Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and then obstructed Congress as it tried to investigate. Trump is mounting a wide-ranging, aggressive defense asserting an expansive view of presidential powers and portraying him as besieged by political opponents determined to ensure that he won’t be re-elected this November.

“They’re asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election, but as I’ve said before, they’re asking you to remove President Trump from an election that’s occurring in approximately nine months,” Cipollone said. “They’re asking you to tear up all the ballots across this country on their own initiative.”


Read more: https://apnews.com/21791704b5434669225117a0638b7a1a

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-snip-

I could only listen to the Jim Jordon's with suits for about 30 minutes ......................

And no we are not trying to turn over the last election.............................we are trying a case for a person(s) that broke the fucking law..................


November 3, 2020 cannot get here fast enough...................

[mucifer]

1. What a wonderous dream! Point is Hillary got 3 million more votes.

[Botany]

2. "They're here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history," ...

... Pat Cipollone. No that would have been Russia in 2016.

[malthaussen]

3. Yeah, pretty much. n/t

[LakeArenal]

4. I want him out. If that's overturning 2016. OK.

I think of it more as impeaching a treasonous usurper in 2020.

[wcmagumba]

5. Hardly "overturning"...

we are in the last year of the giant orange turd's term....would be shortening the term not "overturning"...some-antics....schematics...to truly "overturn" we'd have to get the full four years (of hell) back...

[Marie Marie]

20. Not only that but it is not like Hillary would suddenly become President.

THAT would be overturning the last election. They would still have Pence, a hardline conservative Republican running the show.

[William Seger]

6. "not a fact-finding mission"

"... but a politically motivated effort to drive him from the White House." Hey, sport, those aren't mutually exclusive. Your political opponents will keep a close eye on you. Duh. Don't fuck up.

[Perseus]

7. Well, that is what impeachment is all about, you get rid of a crook and if the 2nd in charge

is also a crook, like Pence is, then Pelosi takes charge and she may bring Hillary as a VP.

I don't bother to listen to these crooks, they have no principles.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. overturn a stolen election? there are no words...

[DallasNE]

9. Overtuning The 2016 Election Would Mean Certifying Hillary Clinton As President

That shoots down the notion of overturning the 2016 election.

Well, the Trump defense has ended for the day and not one piece of exculpatory evidence offered, as predicted. About the only point made was that Schiff at first wanted the whistleblower to testify and then "he changed his mind" and didn't want the whistleblower to testify. Actually, the whistleblower didn't want to testify and that took it off of the table. But that is a process issue that has no bearing on the merits.

[Aristus]

10. You have to hand it to them: they stick with the talking points no matter how idiotic they are.

Removing Trump from office will not instate Hillary Clinton. Even a Constitutional dilettante with only two brain cells to rub together knows that.

[underpants]

26. This is a public airing of talk radio

I've heard nothing from them since this started that isn't drilled into the heads of talk radio listeners every day...12-16 times a day. From mornings with Fox & Friends to all day she. They are in their car to nighttime with Fox finishing the job, this as seen on TV legal team is just repeating what they've been hearing for months.

Yeah I listen in.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Use the Rule of Law like a jackhammer

can't happen soon enough for me.

[onenote]

12. In one sense, that is true.

Which is why essentially the same point was made in the opening statement of Clinton's counsel during that impeachment trial:

Charles Ruff: "Here you are asking, in effect, to overturn the will of the electorate, to overturn the results of an election held 2 years ago in which the American people selected the head of one of the three coordinate branches of Government."

But Ruff wasn't arguing that impeachment is inappropriate per se, but rather than the impeachment of a president has a different consequence than the impeachment of any other government official and should be limited to "only the most serious offenses and in particular those that subverted our system of government." Which is a pretty good description of what Trump has done.

[world wide wally]

13. He's right, but did it ever occur to these assholes that maybe if they put up a candidate with a

minimum of half a brain and some common decency we wouldn't feel this way?

[LiberalArkie]

14. Over turning the 2016 election would mean that we do not have a democracy.

[Bradical79]

15. That's what Portman told me

It's a common bullshit talking point for these crooks.

[Maxheader]

16. "here to perpetrate the most massive interference"

Give this guy a lollypop..

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

17. Not quite

If Trump is removed Mike Pence becomes President not Hillary Clinton.

[NCjack]

18. Trump had his chance. All he had to do was served the national interest and adhere to

Last edited Sun Jan 26, 2020, 08:29 AM - Edit history (1)

the Constitution. But, he is too much of a mob boss to do it.

[forgotmylogin]

33. Exactly. He became president* and was impeached for things done as president.

If the election were overturned, I45 couldn't be impeached because he wouldn't be president*.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

19. Might as well rip the impeachment clauses out of the Constitution, then.

A president is always in office because of the results of the previous election, no matter how corrupt. Under their theory, it doesn't matter what he does -- he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue -- and he couldn't be investigated, indicted nor impeached. What a great job -- zero accountability.

[Marthe48]

21. There is no election to overturn

trumpsky was installed by the russians. His demented henchmen seem to think they'd benefit from criminal treason mob rule and are willing to do anything it takes to follow putin over the cliff.

The same as the 2000 election, we will never know how many votes were bogus, not counted, flipped or added to make it look like trump won the swing states.

As someone else said, the 2020 election can't get here fast enough. GOTV

[rickyhall]

23. Trumpublicans lie as they breathe.

[Takket]

24. i heard this, and it is an absurd defense........

first off, if the founders didn't ever want a president removed from office, they wouldn't have LITERALLY written a method to remove a president from office.

Second......... complaining about "overturning an election" has no bearing on anything to due with the trial. It does not in any way show that the evidence presented against drumpf is invalid. For that matter it doesn't in any way prove that he is INNOCENT either.

Defense is supposed to refute the evidence to show their client's innocence. Nothing bout this argument does that.

[lees1975]

25. That's a political statement

not a defense of the President's actions. It is an admission of guilt.

[47of74]

27. What a fuck knob

That's the nicest thing I can say about this guy too.

[Under The Radar]

28. Hey, I will admit it

I would like to overturn the last election plus the 2000 and 2004.
There is so much damage done in those administrations that I doubt that a democratic full deck could repair it in two terms.

[Rhiannon12866]

31. And all 3 of those elections were "won" by nefarious means

In 2000, they never finished the recount in Florida and SoS Ken Blackwell interfered in Ohio in 2004. And we all know what happened in 2016 - the current "winner" lost by 3 million votes. Apparently the Republicans can only "win" by cheating. Welcome to DU, we're glad to have you with us!

[Under The Radar]

35. Don't forget 2012 election

Where Karl Rove went Apeshit on Fox when he learned that “Anonymous” (of Occupy WallStreet fame), they blocked the computer glitch that Karl Rove attempted to repeat from 2004 campaign against John Kerry. They blocked the votes being flipped in Ohio and Rove had the Ohio attorney general on the phone asking him “what the fuck happened”.
The voting machine company that had contracts in Ohio, Virginia, Georgia, north and South Carolina and Florida was named “Diabold Election systems ” who were large GOP donors and when investigations were announced, they closed the company, sold it’s assets to ES&S who control more than 60% of the market in 48 states.
I do hope that in the time I have remaining, that I can at least see a Progressive Full Deck (House, Senate, Executive and a logical Supreme Court) and that we can at least get citizens united overturned and meaningful campaign finance laws in place where it would be a federal crime for an elected official to receive as much as a cheeseburger from lobbyists.

[Turbineguy]

29. Impractical

it will take many years to repair the damage. They should say that the Democrats want to get started making repairs.

[Rebl2]

30. No we

just want a normal President who follows the rule of law and the Constitution. Anyway if he was removed, Pence becomes President, not Clinton.

[King_Klonopin]

32. It's not about "the election" (which he lost BTW, lest we forget)

It's about removing a dangerous, psychopathic criminal
from the highest office in our Federal Govt. PERIOD.

He is morally unfit and constitutionally incapable of carrying
out the duties of POTUS. Impeachment is the remedy for
this form of cancer, and it is not an underhanded method for
overturning an election.

I also refer you to the movie "The Caine Mutiny". Captain
Queeg had to be removed, but the men who made it happen
were vilified by those sympathetic to the impaired Capt.

[tavernier]

34. Well, if you insist!

An overturn would save a lot of time and hard work, because gathering evidence on these crooks is a backbreaking job involving mountains of shit to shovel.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

36. "OVERTURNING" would mean that Pence goes away too.... right? I'd be happy to go along with that,

except that's not what impeachment means. The prez and VP are elected together, as a pair.

Its impeachment and removal of PRESIDENT ONLY, its not undoing an election. IF ONLY.....