Two former aides to Democrat presidents had a friendly chat about impeaching the current Republican president on Good Morning America today and no one batted an eyelash.
Ex-Clinton aide turned ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos barely tried to hide how he’s still helping the DNC, by parroting his guest, former Obama adviser Norm Eisen’s Trump-trashing talking points on Monday’s GMA. Despite working for the impeached Bill Clinton, Stephanopoulos showed no hesitation eagerly touting how Eisen’s “first insider account” about how he helped Democrats in the House impeach President Trump will “surprise readers:”
Back now with the first insider account of the effort to impeach President Trump. A case for the American people, the United States versus Donald J. Trump,” it's by Norm Eisen, who served as the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. Norm joins us now. Norm thanks for joining us this morning. I see you have a COVID beard as well since impeachment [chuckles] but in your tweet announcing your GMA appearance you said the book will surprise people. What will surprise readers?
The Democrats’ impeachment special counsel revealed how Trump was still “colluding” and was being “enabled” by the Department of Justice. Eisen’s sensational claims got no pushback from Stephanopoulos. After all, why would they? The Clinton hack was pushing impeachment like his guest, just two weeks ago on ABC.
Instead, Stephanopoulos continued parroting Eisen: “ You say that what happened with impeachment is a key to understanding how the president is reacting to the crises now?”
Eisen went on to play psychologist and psychoanalyze the president like many in the media do, by claiming that how he’s handled the coronavirus is also “quid pro quo:”
...George, now he's saying it to America's governors, if you want help, you have to do things for us. It's the quid pro quo. It's the president only thinking of crises in terms of his personal and political benefit including for election or re-election. The difference is that now Americans are dying by the tens of thousands because of this pattern of selfishness and that selfishness which in the law we call abuse of power, Article 1 of the impeachment, always goes with obstruction and we saw it in the Russia investigation, we saw it in the Ukraine impeachment and we're seeing it now with COVID...
To show he wasn’t completely being a hack, Stephanopoulos ended the interview with one critical question, asking, “How do you answer those who say impeachment was a failure? The President said he was vindicated by acquittal in the Senate.”
Eisen countered that it wasn’t a failure because it “woke up” the American people. Stephanopoulos didn’t push back on anything he said, just promoted his book once more:
EISEN: Well, George, to get up and talk to you this morning, I set three alarms because I was anxious, I didn't want to miss our visit. It's the same thing with this pattern. The first alarm was Mueller and the Russia investigation. People paid attention. The second was Ukraine and the impeachment got more attention and now COVID, the American people have really woken up. But that pattern that was exposed was part of waking them up. The people know who they're dealing with and now we're getting ready for the fourth act which is the people's verdict and in my book I argue the case to the American people for November.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Norm Eisen, thanks very much. The book is out tomorrow. It’s called, “A Case for the American people, the United States Versus Donald J. Trump.”
GMA was sponsored by JcPenney and Hyundai.
Read the transcript below:
Good Morning America
7/27/2020
STEPHANOPOULOS: Back now with the first insider account of the effort to impeach President Trump. A case for the American people, the United States versus Donald J. Trump,” its by Norm Eisen, who served as the special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. Norm joins us now. Norm thanks for joining us this morning. I see you have a COVID beard as well since impeachment [chuckles] but in your tweet announcing your GMA appearance you said the book will surprise people. What will surprise readers?
NORM EISEN: George, thanks for having me. I think of it as a post-impeachment beard as well as a COVID beard. And the thing that will surprise readers in this book is, number one, to see these characters who are involved in impeachment behind the scenes and realize what was driving some of the ups and downs. You'll meet Bob Mueller. Find out why he did not do more to oust the president. Bill Barr, the president's enabler in chief and, number two, I put all the evidence out there including new evidence of the president's collusion and, number three, to me as I wrote the biggest surprise was, George, the president is still doing it! There's a through line. There's a pattern.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's what I wanted to ask you about. You know, it seems like ancient history now. Impeachment is only six months ago but we've gone through so much in the country since then. You say that what happened with impeachment is a key to understanding how the president is reacting to the crises now?
EISEN: He has a pattern of behavior, George, and it starts with, Russia, are you listening. It goes through the Ukraine scandal where he said something very similar to the President of Ukraine and, George, now he's saying it to America's governors, if you want help, you have to do things for us. It's the quid pro quo. It's the president only thinking of crises in terms of his personal and political benefit including for election or re-election. The difference is that now Americans are dying by the tens of thousands because of this pattern of selfishness and that selfishness which in the law we call abuse of power, Article 1 of the impeachment, always goes with obstruction and we saw it in the Russia investigation, we saw it in the Ukraine impeachment and we're seeing it now with COVID. The lies, the attacks on whistle-blowers, the attacks on inspectors general.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you answer those who say impeachment was a failure? The President said he was vindicated by acquittal in the Senate.”
EISEN: Well, George, to get up and talk to you this morning, I set three alarms because I was anxious, I didn't want to miss our visit. It's the same thing with this pattern. The first alarm was Mueller and the Russia investigation. People paid attention. The second was Ukraine and the impeachment got more attention and now COVID, the American people have really woken up. But that pattern that was exposed was part of waking them up. The people know who they're dealing with and now we're getting ready for the fourth act which is the people's verdict and in my book I argue the case to the American people for November.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Norm Eisen, thanks very much. The book is out tomorrow. It’s called, “A Case for the American people, the United States Versus Donald J. Trump.”
