President Donald Trump’s lawyers argued against impeachment Monday, saying that voters should decide his fate in November, while Democrats maintained that he couldn’t be trusted and was too dangerous to leave in office.
Their arguments came as the Senate heard four hours of closing statements split evenly between House Democrats and Trump’s lawyers as impeachment proceedings headed toward a near-certain acquittal on Wednesday.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow urged the senators to “protect our nation.”
“Stand firm today, protect the integrity of the United States Senate, stand firm today and protect the office of the president, stand firm today and protect the Constitution, and firm today and protect the will of the American people and their votes, stand firm today and protect our nation,” he said.
“If you don’t like the policies in a particular administration or a particular candidate, you are free to vote for another candidate.”
House impeachment managers, meanwhile, asserted that Trump would not change following his acquittal.
“He’s guilty as sin, but why not let the voters clean up this mess?” lead House manager Rep. Adam Schiff said. “To answer that question we must look at the history of this presidency and to the character of this president or lack of character and ask, can we be confident that he will not continue to try to cheat in that very election?”
“The short, plain, sad, incontestable answer is no, you can’t. You can’t trust this president to do the right thing, not for one minute, not for one election. He will not change, and you know it,” he said.
With the closing arguments finished, senators will be able to make speeches Tuesday and Wednesday, when a final vote will be taken at 4 p.m. to determine whether Trump should be ousted.
Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict the president.
