Dems take aim at Trump saying ‘he must be held accountable’

Bloomberg

The House impeachment managers wrapped up their case against President Donald Trump by warning senators that they will cause sustained damage to the Constitution and the nation’s system of government if they don’t hold him accountable.
“That will be an unending injury to this country,” Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said in his summation. “The balance of power that our founders set out will never be the same.”
The California Democrat, who led the House managers, also made an attempt to neutralise what he anticipated would be the arguments of Trump’s defense team when they present their case. Schiff said they would attack the process, attack him and the other impeachment managers as well as a variety of Democrats.
The argument that the process was unfair and driven by hatred of the president, Schiff said, is “another of the myriad forms of ‘please do not consider what the president did.’”
As Schiff built up to a dramatic rhetorical finish, Republicans started paying closer attention. They erupted when he referred to a CBS News report, which, citing an unnamed source, said “a group of senators were warned ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’ I don’t know if that is true.”
Susan Collins of Maine, who has been attentive throughout the trial, burst out “not true!” clearly audible from the gallery and shook her head no.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska later said on CNN that “that’s where he lost me” — an ominous sign for Democrats given her vote — and Collins’ — could be crucial on whether to extend the trial as Schiff was demanding for witnesses and documents withheld by Trump. In their final day of arguments, House prosecutors focussed on the July 25 call with Ukraine’s president that Trump has repeatedly characterised as “perfect.”
They played video clips of two White House aides’ testimony that they told lawyers Trump had asked Ukraine’s leader for an inappropriate “favor” during the call. After that point there was no question that Trump, not his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was in charge, the Democrats said.
“After July 25, there can be no mistake the president of the United States was undoubtedly calling the shots,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, one of the seven managers. He said White House lawyers’ decision to save a memo on the call in a highly secure server showed “they tried to bury the call summary.”
Trump’s lawyers were expected to begin their defense in a Saturday session, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said. The president lamented on Twitter that Saturdays are the “Death Valley” of television.
Schiff led the other House managers in pulling together what had been a disjointed collection of testimony into a timeline they said shows Trump took a sudden interest in Ukrainian corruption only after former Vice President Joe Biden entered the presidential race.
Trump then withheld almost $400 million in military aid and a White House meeting sought by the recently-elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, while seeking an investigation of Biden and his son Hunter, Democrats say.
Trump’s defense lawyers will have as many as 24 hours over three days to present their case, although they haven’t said whether they will use all their time. Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said his team plans to showcase allegations against Joe Biden.