Schiff's closing statement at the Impeachement Trial

The most powerful rhetoric displays logos, ethos and pathos. IMO, Senator Shiff's speech is right up there, rhetorically, with MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail."

Watch the last eight minutes of his closing speech at the Senate Trial of Donald Trump.
The most powerful rhetoric displays logos, ethos and pathos. IMO, Shiff's speech is right up there, rhetorically, with MLK's "Letter from Birmingham Jail."


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/us/politics/adam-schiff-closing-remarks.html

Mr. Schiff opened by carefully leading the Senate through the House’s case that the president abused his office by trying to enlist Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, weaving in bits and pieces of testimony and commentary along the way. He then turned to his Senate audience and stated what he believes to be the obvious: Mr. Trump is guilty.

 

“Do we really have any doubt about the facts here?” Mr. Schiff asked. “Does anybody really question whether the president is capable of what he’s charged with? No one is really making the argument Donald Trump would never do such a thing, because of course we know that he would, and of course we know that he did." 

But that, Mr. Schiff said, led to the most critical question of all: “Does he really need to be removed?” The answer was yes, Mr. Schiff said, then offered a situation in which the Russians interfered in the 2020 election to help Mr. Trump, just as they did in 2016.

“Can you have the least bit of confidence that Donald Trump will stand up to them and protect our national interest over his own personal interest?” Mr. Schiff said. “You know you can’t, which makes him dangerous to this country.’’

In the Capitol, Mr. Schiff is ordinarily serious, composed and in control. But as he moved toward his closing comments, he grew visibly emotional as he recalled the testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, the White House national security aide and Ukrainian immigrant who testified in impeachment hearings before Congress and helped Democrats build their case.

Colonel Vindman, who fled the former Soviet Union with his family when he was 3, testified that he felt deeply uncomfortable with a telephone call Mr. Trump had on July 25 with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, when Mr. Trump asked the Ukrainian leader to “do us a favor” and investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Schiff recalled how Colonel Vindman told lawmakers that unlike in the former Soviet Union, “right matters” in the United States.

“Well, let me tell you something,” Mr. Schiff went on, his forefinger jabbing the air for emphasis. “If right doesn’t matter, if right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were. Doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is.” If “right doesn’t matter,” he concluded, “we’re lost.”

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000006941143/impeachment-trial-highlights.html?action=click&gtype=vhs&version=vhs-heading&module=vhs&region=title-area&cview=true&t=4

‘He Is a Dictator’: Democrats Finish Opening Arguments

The House impeachment managers completed their opening arguments in the Senate trial of President Trump.

“Do you think for a moment that any of you, no matter what your relationship with this president, no matter how close you are to this president — do you think for a moment that if he felt it was in his interest, he wouldn’t ask you to be investigated? Do you think for a moment that he wouldn’t? And if somewhere deep down below you realize that he would — you cannot leave a man like that in office when he has violated the Constitution.” “This is a determination by President Trump that he wants to be all-powerful. He does not have to — to respect the Congress. He does not have to respect the representatives of the people. Only his will goes. He is a dictator. This must not stand. And that is why — another reason he must be removed from office.” “You don’t realize how important character is in the highest office in the land until you don’t have it, until you have a president willing to use his power to coerce an ally to help him cheat, to investigate one of our fellow citizens — one of our fellow citizens. Yes, he’s running for president — he’s still a U.S. citizen. He’s still a U.S. citizen, and he deserves better than that.” “Although senior Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Bill Barr, were reportedly made aware of the concerns about corrupt activity, no investigation into President Trump’s wrongdoing was even opened by the Department of Justice.” “In an effort to conceal the whistle-blower’s concerns, the White House and the Department of Justice took an unprecedented step. No administration had ever intervened in such a manner before. But President Trump maneuvered to keep the whistle-blower’s concerns from the congressional Intelligence Committees.” “At President Trump’s direction, the White House itself refused to produce a single document or record in response to a House subpoena that remains in full force and effect. And it continues to withhold those documents from Congress and from the American people.” “If we are to decide here that a president of the United States can simply say under Article 2, ‘I can do whatever I want and I don’t have to treat a coequal branch of government like it exists, I don’t have to give it any more than the back of my hand’ — that will be an unending injury to this country. Ukraine will survive and so will we, but that will be an undending injury to this country, because the balance of power that our founders set out will never be the same.”