Tipsheet

Adam Schiff Says the Senate Must Remove Trump or Else He Might Give Alaska Away to Russia

Lead impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) implored the Senate to convict President Trump on the two impeachment articles during closing arguments on Monday. If they do not and he stays in office, Schiff warned Trump may do something as extreme as giving away the state of Alaska to Russia.

Schiff further warned Trump could decide to stay at his Mar-a-Lago resort and let son-in-law Jared Kushner run the nation if he is not removed on the charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

"If abuse is not impeachable...then a whole range utterly unacceptable conduct in a president would now be beyond reach," he said. "Trump could offer Alaska to the Russians in exchange for support in the next election or decide to move to Mar-a-Lago permanently and leave Jared Kushner to run the country, delegating to him the decision whether to go to war."

Schiff said if he is acquitted on abuse of power then the extreme examples he listed would be unimpeachable for a host of other actions.

"Of course this would be absurd. More than absurd, it would be dangerous. And so [Alan] Dershowitz tried to embellished his legal creation and distinguished among those abuses of power, which would be impeachable from those which wouldn't," Schiff continued.

The Senate is set to vote on acquittal on Wednesday after the body voted against having more witnesses testify. CNN anchor Chris Cuomo said the Senate's impeachment trial for President Trump was not real trial because of the lack of more witnesses.

"One of the ways this process is similar to a real trial, and I emphasize that a lot because this has not been a trial, I don’t care how often they use the word. You don’t have witnesses, you don’t have a trial," Cuomo said.