At the Democratic leadership press conference on Wednesday following former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) laid into President Donald Trump, accusing him of turning his back on America by accepting electoral help from a foreign power.
"As I mentioned today during our hearing, I think the story of the 2016 election is really a story of disloyalty to country, about greed, and about lies," said Schiff. "And if there is anything that I think symbolizes those three strands of the 2016 election, it was Moscow Trump Tower. It was this massive real estate project that the president was trying to consummate while he was running for president, and concealing it from the country."
"This showed disloyalty to the country by seeking this business deal while he was running for president," said Schiff. "It certainly showed the greed of the people involved in that campaign, and an ample demonstration of all the lies that permeated the campaign and its aftermath. That to me is the story of the 2016 election. We need to make sure that is not the story of the 2020 election."
Schiff strongly implied he favored impeachment, but also added that he agreed with the approach of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) that Democrats should gather all possible evidence before beginning such an inquiry. "Maybe I'm just an old prosecutor, but before I brought a case to indictment, I wanted to make sure that I had the strongest evidence possible. I wanted to understand my case, I wanted to be able to make my case."
"Now, I tried an impeachment case in the Senate about ten years ago, a corrupt federal judge who was convicted, so I have some understanding of what it takes to get a conviction in the Senate, and I have no illusions about getting a conviction in the Senate," continued Schiff. "But there are two juries in an impeachment. There is the jury which is the Senate which decides removal from office, and then there is the jury that is the American people. And I'm most concerned about the jury that is the American people. And before we embark on a course as significant to the country as the impeachment of a president, I want to make sure that we can make that case to the jury of the American people."
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