Powerful Democrat Representative Jerry Nadler was reportedly convinced the process behind the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump was “unconstitutional” and tried warning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Rep. Adam Schiff, only to be rebuffed.
The extraordinary accounting comes from excerpts of a new book titled, “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump.”
Fox News, which obtained the excerpts, reports that Nadler had issues with how Schiff (D-CA) was planning to run impeachment proceedings, particularly concerned that the then-President was not being afforded due process.
The New York Democrat was so concerned, the book’s authors reveal, that he told Schiff the process is “unfair, and it’s unprecedented, and it’s unconstitutional.”
Jerry Nadler in 1998: “An impeachment of a President is an undoing of a National Election!”
Democrats refuse to accept that Donald Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in 2016. https://t.co/kVfllCk1FT
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) September 26, 2019
RELATED: Schiff: Impeachment Necessary to Stop Trump In 2020
Nadler: Trump Impeachment is Unconstitutional
Despite Nadler’s initial concerns, House Democrats impeached former President Trump on the basis of a July 25, 2019, phone call between he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump, according to transcripts of the call, asked Zelensky to “look into” Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Trump maintained that nothing untoward took place during the conversation.
Schiff, who seemed unconcerned about potential constitutional violations of Trump’s rights during the impeachment proceedings, responded to Nadler’s concerns by saying, “I don’t appreciate your tone.”
He also said, “I worry you’re putting us in a box for our investigation.”
Breaking: Schiff/Pelosi warned by key Democrat that they there violating due process rights of Trump with impeachment show trial but didn’t care! https://t.co/DpWsjIQv40 https://t.co/wxxC0kiXwH
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) September 27, 2022
Nadler’s warnings persisted.
“If we’re going to impeach, we need to show the country that we gave the president ample opportunity to defend himself,” he demanded.
The Fox News report indicates again that Pelosi and Schiff were less concerned with due process and more concerned that Trump’s lawyers, if allowed to convey their own messages during the proceedings, would hurt Biden’s chances of being elected.
“F*** Donald Trump,” Schiff’s team is accused of saying.
Pelosi, meanwhile, was arguing that Americans weren’t going to understand the complexity of the impeachment charges and that they’d have to carefully construct the narrative.
“We need to make the case more strongly that this is a national security issue,” Pelosi said, according to the book.
“Eighty percent plus say it’s not okay for the president to ask for foreign assistance [in an election] — despite Trump asserting that he can do it,” she added. “I just think we need to make this case to rural voters, evangelicals, and Republicans.”
Nadler clashed with Pelosi and Schiff during Trump impeachment: Book | Washington Examiner https://t.co/n76Ab1ZReQ pic.twitter.com/w5Z2XIuaZl
— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) September 28, 2022
RELATED: Watch: Schiff Confronted by George Stephanopoulus For Making Up Trump Quotes, Keeps Lying
Pelosi: If Trump Complains About Due Process, We’ll Ignore Him
The authors of the book contend that Pelosi’s strategy to combat concerns of due process were to simply ignore them.
“Let’s not give them any attention,” she allegedly said adding, “Democrats are giving Trump more rights than the Democrats had under the Clinton impeachment.”
Anybody who witnessed the show that was the impeachment proceedings knows Democrats were more concerned about stopping Trump from being re-elected than anything else.
Schiff, you may recall, argued that impeachment couldn’t wait at that time because Trump cheated in the 2016 presidential election and Democrats couldn’t afford for that to happen again.
“The argument, ‘why don’t you just wait?’ comes down to this,” Schiff claimed. “‘Why don’t you just let him cheat in just one more election? Why not let him have foreign help one more time?’”
Rep. Adam Schiff makes the argument why Congress can’t just wait on impeachment:
Why don’t you just wait amounts to saying: “Why don’t you just let him cheat in one more election?”pic.twitter.com/R84yUGXY7L
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) December 10, 2019
Whoa. You heard that correctly. Schiff, very clearly denying the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Some would call that ‘insurrection.’
Schiff also completely fabricated quotes by President Trump during a congressional whistleblower hearing on the Ukraine controversy. Something so absurd even George Stephanopoulus called him out.
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos confronts Adam Schiff for “making up” President Trump’s phone call pic.twitter.com/JT0j5clYnr
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 29, 2019
And while the proceedings were so “unfair” that Jerry Nadler had to call them out, Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) came to the defense of Pelosi at the time.
“She’s able to do what she feels is right. That’s up to her,” Romney said in defending Pelosi. “At this stage, the process is to continue to gather information but clearly what we’ve seen from the transcript itself is deeply troubling.”
.@jmartNYT: appropriate for the House to begin this inquiry on impeachment?
ROMNEY: “That’s not advice I’m going to be providing to the House Speaker, she is able to do what she believes is right…clearly what we’ve seen from the transcript itself is deeply troubling.” pic.twitter.com/8mw11r1jRj
— Alan He (@alanhe) September 25, 2019
Of course, the narrative from that “deeply troubling” transcript was manipulated by anti-Trump lawmakers and media members from the start.
Hey everyone!
If you are reporting on the “favor” line from the transcript, without mentioning that the VERY next sentence is about wanting an investigation into meddling in the 2016 election…
…you are being misleading.
It’s right here. Come on. pic.twitter.com/JRThTjAza9
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 25, 2019
Nadler, somewhere along the line, went from accusing Schiff of conducting things unconstitutionally, to saying Senate Republicans, by not going along with the sham, were behaving in the same manner.
“If the Senate doesn’t permit the introduction of all relevant witnesses and of all documents that the House wants to introduce, because the House is the prosecutor here, then the Senate is — is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting cover-up,” he claimed.
WATCH: Two of 7 impeachment managers, Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY), continue to call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to permit witnesses in the Senate trial, arguing “the Senate is engaging in an unconstitutional and disgusting cover-up” if blocked. pic.twitter.com/PXbY5ev7TA
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 15, 2020
He said that knowing what Democrats had just done in the House was ‘unconstitutional and disgusting.’
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) responded to those comments by alluding to what Nadler had previously argued about the process.
“We’re not going to do a kangaroo court, like they did in the House,” Paul fired back. “The House only produced witnesses that Adam Schiff agreed to.”
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