Schiff to Senate Republicans: ‘What if it was you’

On the fourth day of Senate impeachment proceedings, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked Senate Republicans to put themselves in former Vice President Joe Biden’s shoes.

“Do you think for a moment that — no matter what your relationship with this president, no matter how close you are to this president — do you think for a moment if he felt it was in his interest, he wouldn’t ask you to be investigated?” he asked.

“Do you think for a moment that he wouldn’t? And if somewhere deep down below you realize that he would, you cannot leave a man like that in office when he has violated the constitution,” he said.

Let’s imagine it wasn’t Joe Biden.

Let’s imagine it was any one of us.

Let’s imagine the most powerful man in the world was asking a foreign nation to conduct a sham investigation of us.

What would we think about it then?

Because next time, it might be. pic.twitter.com/WlnlPPGSCY

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) January 24, 2020

Schiff continued his address to the Senate, warning his fellow lawmakers that if they aren’t vigilant, Trump might just target them next.  

“Would you think that he’s abusing the power of his office? And if you would — it shouldn’t matter that it wasn’t you, shouldn’t matter that it was Marie Yovanovitch, it shouldn’t matter that it was Joe Biden. Because I’ll tell you something: Next time, it just may be you.”

The House voted largely along party lines to impeach Trump on two charges: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Schiff, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the House impeachment managers, helped House Democrats make their case that Trump should be removed from office during the past three days of opening arguments in the Senate. 

Schiff laid out the narrative behind the July 25 call that is now at the center of the impeachment trial and the incident during which House Democrats allege that Trump abused his power for his own personal interest. 

Democrats allege that on a July 25 phone call that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the former vice president’s son Hunter Biden and his business dealings in Ukraine in exchange for military aid and a visit to the White House.

In addition, they allege that Trump asked his counterpart to look into whether or not Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 election.

On Saturday, the president’s legal team will get the chance to make their case against the allegations. Their opening arguments will start at 10 a.m. and are expected to go until 1 p.m.