Adam Schiff appeared on The View Monday, where he defended Pelosi on holding the articles of impeachment from the Senate.
Schiff made the claim that Pelosi’s delay put pressure on Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans to allow witnesses at the impeachment trial, something which Schiff and Dems have been pushing for all along.
He said, “I don’t anticipate that Mitch McConnell is going to change his mind but what I am hoping is that the public pressure to have a fair trial will mean that these moderate Republican members of the Senate will insist on hearing from people like John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney and others who have first information about the president’s effort to shake down a foreign leader to help him cheat in an election.”
Take a look:
Watch Schiff's appearance on The View here:
ABC News has more to say:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on ABC's "The View" on Monday he hopes moderate Republicans in the Senate will push Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow witnesses to testify in President Donald Trump's upcoming impeachment trial.
Schiff also defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to wait to send the impeachment articles to the Senate, saying her move has made a more transparent trial more likely.
"I don't anticipate that Mitch Mcconnell is going to change his mind but what I am hoping is that the public pressure to have a fair trial will mean that these moderate Republican members of the Senate will insist on hearing from people like John Bolton and Mick Mulvaney and others who have first information about the president's effort to shake down a foreign leader to help him cheat in an election," Schiff told "The View" hosts, referring for the president's former national security adviser and acting White House chief of staff, respectively.
Schiff added that, without witnesses, McConnell could move to dismiss the impeachment case against President Trump and "sweep it under the rug."
"At least we have the prospect now of holding senators accountable and insisting on a trial with witnesses," he said.
"If McConnell succeeds in dismissing this case without witnesses it will be the first impeachment case not just involving a president but involving anyone in the nation's history in which a trial went forward without witnesses."
NBC News also said:
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Monday that he hopes public pressure to have a fair impeachment trial will put pressure on moderate Senate Republicans in the Senate to insist Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., call key Trump administration witnesses.
"If we had merely rushed the articles over there and given McConnell the chance to sweep it under the rug before the country can be informed about the kind of non-trial he wanted to have, I think it might have led to a different result," Schiff said on ABC's "The View," defending the Democrats' approach to the impeachment process. "At least we have the prospect now of holding senators accountable and insisting on a trial with witnesses.
"If McConnell succeeds in dismissing this case without witnesses, it will be the first impeachment case — not just involving a president, but involving anyone in the nation's history — in which a trial went forward without witnesses," he added.
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