Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) closed his side’s argument for the removal of President Donald Trump with a rambling rhetorical assault on the president.
Unwittingly, perhaps, Schiff’s valediction recalled the Army-McCarthy hearings, when lawyer Joseph Welch finally put an end to the overly intrusive investigations of Sen. Joe McCarthy (R-WI) into alleged communist influence in the U.S. government. “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Welch said.
Schiff defended the investigative process in the House of Representatives, and declared: “America also believes there is a difference between right and wrong, and right matters here. But there is more. Truth matter. Right matters — but so does decency. Decency matters.”
In the course of his speech, which was difficult to follow at points, Schiff flung accusations at the president and his administration. He called the president “a man without character or ethical compass,” and accused Attorney General William Barr of covering up for him.
He warned that Trump would “continue trying to cheat in the election” if left in office. And he warned the Senate: What shall you say if Russia again interferes in our election and Donald Trump does nothing but celebrate the efforts?”
He also warned that “history will not be kind to Donald Trump,” and warned those who did not vote to remove him that “your name will be tied to his with a cord of steel and for all of history.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.