On Tuesday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," UNC Law professor Michael Gerhardt explained why President Donald Trump's cannot shift the blame off himself in the Senate impeachment trial.
"The president, Michael, is obviously consumed on Twitter today by impeachment," said anchor Brianna Keilar. "He's been talking about this, and Republican Sen. Susan Collins is open to having witnesses, but said it is premature to decide on witnesses before evidence is presented, which certainly comes from what we're hearing from Mitch McConnell. How do you interpret her comment?"
"I think there are two things going on here, and they are somewhat related," said Gerhardt, who testified as an expert witness before the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment inquiry. "The first is that Susan Collins is in a tough re-election campaign, and so she wants to be able to show some independence, particularly from the majority leader, that she's going to question to some extent what he's done. It remains to be seen whether she will do anything different than the majority leader, as you just pointed out, it may well be she'll end up following him, and so this expression of concern may turn out to be illusory."
"The second thing, I think, is that we're discovering yet again that the president doesn't really have a defense against the House's case of impeachment against him," continued Gerhardt. "He is pointing at Joe Biden and saying, Joe Biden should be on trial. But the real trial here is about the president. It is about Donald Trump, and whether he abused power and obstructed Congress, and you can't keep pointing the finger at other people. Sooner or later — and I think it is sooner — the trial will be about Trump, and whether or not he abused power and obstructed Congress."
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