Since the beginning of the trial to impeach President Donald Trump, the New York Times has eagerly trumpeted the case laid out by the House impeachment managers, especially Rep. Adam Schiff of California. NewsBusters Scott Whitlock weighed in on the paper’s front-page hackwork headline on Thursday, under the “news analysis” rubric: “On One Side, Piles of Evidence. On the Other, Heaps of Scorn.”
Since then, congressional reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg has gushed over Schiff’s mastery of the impeachment investigation. Stolberg had previously lauded the lead House impeachment manager as “calm...reserved and brainy.” By Friday, Schiff had “secured his place as a liberal rock star -- and villain to conservatives -- with the fiery closing argument he delivered Thursday night, imploring senators to convict and remove Mr. Trump because ‘you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country.’”
Stolberg flattered Schiff for his "masterful performance.”
By Friday morning, the phrase #RightMatters -- from the last line of Mr. Schiff’s speech -- was trending as a hashtag on Twitter, which was lighting up with reaction from across the philosophical spectrum. “I am in tears,” wrote Debra Messing, the “Will & Grace” actress and outspoken Trump critic. “Thank you Chairman Schiff for fighting for our country.”
Even some Republicans are giving Mr. Schiff, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, grudging respect for delivering a masterful performance. But they also view him as nothing more than a shrewd political operator....
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Mr. Schiff is known on Capitol Hill for his serious demeanor and dry laconic wit. But on Thursday, he was filled with passion, his voice rising and his face reddening as he made a late-night appeal to a tired and bitterly divided audience of senators....
Another Schiff fan, reporter Nicholas Fandos, gushed during Wednesday’s live coverage, “Schiff is taking us through many of the greatest hits of the early American debate about impeachment and the Constitution!”
There was an obvious double standard on “partisanship” during Tuesday’s coverage. Check Stolberg’s Tuesday afternoon update, “Partisanship reigns outside the Senate chamber.”
Even before the trial got underway Tuesday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee posted a blistering pro-Trump video on Twitter painting Democrats as an impeachment-hungry mob -- a sign that naked partisanship still reigns outside the chamber.
Yet Michael Shear’s “Callers urged to flood the Senate switchboard to demand witnesses and evidence,” showing sharp Democratic partisanship, was not criticized at all.
Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, on Tuesday urged people to flood the Senate switchboard with calls demanding that senators allow new witnesses and evidence to be considered as part of the impeachment trial of President Trump....The social media request was part of a Democratic effort to attack the trial rules proposed by Republicans as part of a “cover-up” designed to move the impeachment trial to a rapid acquittal of the president. Democrats are hoping that the public will pressure Republicans to alter their proposed rules...
