Trump Impeachment Dominates Sunday Talk Shows

(Bloomberg) -- Detractors and defenders of Donald Trump were out in force to make their case to the American people on Sunday political talk shows, after Congressional Democrats last week started a formal impeachment investigation of the president.

The appearances followed a week of damaging headlines for Trump, including revelations that the president asked Ukraine’s leader to investigate top Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during a July phone call.

Here are some of the highlights:

Adam Schiff,
House Intelligence Committee chairman, on NBC:

• “The whistle-blower will be allowed to come in, and come in without a minder from the Justice Department or the White House to tell the whistle-blower what they can and cannot say. We’ll get the unfiltered testimony of that whistle-blower.”
• And on ABC: “What we have seen already is damning, because what we have seen in that call record is a president of the United States use the full weight of his office, with a country beholden to America for its defense, even as Russian troops occupy part of its land.”

Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s attorney, on ABC:

• “I am defending my client the best way I know how. This is not about getting Joe Biden in trouble, this is about proving that Donald Trump was framed by the Democrats.”

Stephen Miller, White House senior adviser, on Fox:

• “If you read the seven-page little Nancy Drew novel that the whistle-blower put together, it drips with condescension, righteous indignation and contempt for the president.”
• “A partisan hit-job does not make you a whistle-blower, just because you go through the Whistle-blower Protection Act.”

Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, on CNN:

• “I don’t have any problem with the call. We have now seen the transcript. ... This is just one of the many and unending attacks the Democrats have leveled against this president.”

Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, on CNN:

• “History will look back on what did we do when a president was willing to trash the Constitution, acting less like a leader of the free world and more like a dictator or a thug in using American power to pursue his own personal gain.”

Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, on CBS:

• “I think that is very much what the founders worried about, in high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on CBS:

• “We are not going to impeach a president based on hearsay.”

Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, on CBS:

• “The whistle-blower’s account is absolutely credible. But frankly you don’t need it, because you have a transcript.”
• “Republicans are circling the wagons. This isn’t about hearsay evidence, this is about a transcript.”

Tom Bossert, former Trump Homeland Security adviser, on ABC:

• “I’ve seen a lot of rush to judgment this week. That said, it is a bad day and a bad week for this president and for this country if he is asking for political dirt on an opponent.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Mark Niquette in Columbus at mniquette@bloomberg.net;Naomi Nix in Washington at nnix1@bloomberg.net;Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Mark Niquette

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