On CNN Saturday, former Clinton White House adviser Guy Smith — who saw the last presidential impeachment up close — discussed the problems with the Trump White House's strategy for protecting the president.
"Let's start with the question of the moment, and that is whether or not the president should have his own attorneys participate in what's coming next?" said anchor Martin Savidge.
"Well, as you and I have talked before, the White House is woefully unprepared to deal with this, and this is another example," said Smith. "Since the Intelligence Committee hearings ended more than a week ago, every single day, one of the other White House and Republican excuses has been taken away. And now he's saying, well, we can't have lawyers. Well, now they are invited to have lawyers, to actually have their own witnesses, to cross-examine witnesses, and to not do that puts themselves more at a disadvantage, and we know that they don't have a very good story, but if they don't have their lawyers defending them at all, they are going to be in even worse shape."
"And this narrative that's coming out of the media that the polls show no movement is — remember, when Nixon was at this stage, the American public was only around 25 percent," added Smith. "This is already at 50 percent for impeachment and removal. It is a significant number."
Watch below: