Trump impeachment trial lawyer David Schoen appeared on Hannity Tuesday night to further arguments that former President Donald Trump ...
Trump impeachment trial lawyer David Schoen appeared on Hannity Tuesday night to further arguments that former President Donald Trump should not be impeached for allegedly inciting deadly violence on Jan. 6. But in so doing, he appeared to back into an argument that Trump’s followers did in fact storm the Capitol building because they are so “dedicated” to his words. Inciteful!
Trump’s defense in this, his second impeachment trial, is that any potentially violent rhetoric is no different than the standard political hyperbole seen by elected officials on both sides of the aisle. In fact, during Tuesday’s opening arguments, Trump’s defense showed a video of a number of Democrats making what they presented as inflammatory comments, which host Sean Hannity brought up to his guest.
Hannity referenced his opening monologue, which featured the words of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Maxine Waters.
“If that same standard is applied, do they not all deserve impeachment too?” the Fox News host asked, rhetorically.
“By the way, I don’t agree with it,” he hedged, adding “If you use their standard, if you are somewhat intellectually honest, you have to say they deserve impeachment.”
“I would say if they tried to impeach them, I would say that’s also an abuse of the impeachment process,” Schoen replied, before noting “But your point is they are using rhetoric that is just as inflammatory or more so.”
None of the examples referenced by Schoen or Hannity, however, led to an insurrection or deadly violence of any kind.
But that rather significant distinction was lost on Mr. Schoen, who explained the difference in a curious, perhaps even damning, way: “The problem is they don’t have followers, dedicated followers, when they give speeches.”
Wait, what?
Schoen is arguing that the only reason why there isn’t political violence following dangerous rhetoric from Democratic politicians is that their followers aren’t “dedicated” enough to follow through. This, of course, suggests that Trump’s supporters ARE dedicated enough to follow through with former President Trump’s exhortation to “fight like hell” in a manner that we saw on January 6th.
To put Schoen’s comments in clearer logic, the only reason there was violence on Jan. 6 is because Trump’s loyal base of supporters — ginned up by the former president’s continual lying about a stolen election—led a deadly insurrection because they are dedicated followers. If followers of Biden, et al, were just as dedicated, then they too would need to be held responsible.
Again, it’s worth repeating that there has been no deadly insurrection on the Capitol as a result of heated political rhetoric from the aforementioned officials.
Schoen cleaned up his comments by retreating to his claim that there was nothing House Democrats showed during their opening arguments that “ties this to Donald Trump.”
“It’s a silly argument,” he added. “It’s not tied to Donald Trump or his speech. What they are doing is it’s not just that speech, he’s been inciting people and flaming people, he’s been rousing the American public to drain the swamp.”
The first day of the Senate impeachment trial was not a good one for Trump’s defense, but Schoen’s colleague Bruce Castor was the lightning rod for criticism. After Tuesday night’s apparent gaffe, maybe Schoen will prove to be the less competent of the two.
Watch above via Fox News.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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