Impeachment expert witness Pamela Karlan brought up President Trump's youngest son, 13-year-old Barron Trump, to make a point about nobility titles during her appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
Karlan is a law professor at Stanford University and one of four witnesses called to testify about the impeachment inquiry into Trump.
"What comparisons, Professor, can we make between kings that the framers were afraid of and the president’s conduct today?" Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) asked.
"So kings could do no wrong because the kings word was law. And contrary to what President Trump has said, Article II does not give him the power to do anything he wants," Karlan said. "I’ll just give you one example that shows you difference between him and a king. Which is the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility. So while the President can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron."
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham responded to Karlan on Twitter, calling the remark a "classless move":
Classless move by a Democratic “witness”. Prof Karlan uses a teenage boy who has nothing to do with this joke of a hearing (and deserves privacy) as a punchline. And what’s worse, it’s met by laughter in the hearing room. What is being done to this country is no laughing matter.
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) December 4, 2019
Karlan is one of the three witnesses who believe the present evidence in the impeachment inquiry is enough for the House to impeach President Trump and have the Senate remove him from office. George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley is the only one on the panel to say there is not enough evidence to warrant impeachment.