As Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Trump this morning, ABC News broke in with a special report largely focused on defending the party’s partisan push to remove Trump from office.
ABC’s Jon Karl started the network’s coverage by dismissing President Trump’s tweet dissing the Democrats’ “political madness” in trying to impeach him amidst “perhaps” the country’s “strongest economy” ever:
“So the president will portray this as a political act, as a biased act by Democrats,” Karl noted, as if this was just Trump’s opinion. Each ABC journalist then went on to parrot Democrat talking points, arguing they were upholding the Constitution, not acting in their own political interests.
Anchor George Stephanopoulos insisted impeachment wasn't the Democrats’ plan all along:
“Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she was reluctant to pursue impeachment during the Mueller investigation and after the Mueller report but in the wake of the reports on this Ukraine phone call, she did come forward,” he touted.
Handing off to Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran, Stephanopoulos marveled over how “in charge” Pelosi was of this impeachment process. Moran did his part in gushing over how the “solemn” House Speaker had no “partisan” agenda but was “laying out the evidence” to the American people, why impeachment was necessary:
She wants this to be not typical partisan politics. She knows the Democrats, some members, have been eager to impeach this President from the moment he got into office. One of the challenges is for the Democrats to persuade people this is the real deal, this time it's different. One of the ways you can tell she is insistent that it is a solemn process, that it is constitutional and that it is a duty the Democrats are doing, not a weapon in their partisan war, so they lay out the rationale, they lay out the evidence and they make the case...
Stephanopoulos and World News anchor David Muir also touted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff claiming Democrats couldn’t wait to impeach Trump because he was trying to “cheat” in the next election.
Stephanopoulos gushed, “Adam Schiff the Director of the Intelligence Committee did directly address that question as to why they're going so fast, it's to protect the next election!”
Things got even more biased as the anchor turned to the newest member of ABC's legal team, NYU professor Melissa Murray to hype the Democrats’ “solemn duty” to impeach Trump because it’s what the Founders would have wanted:
“We saw the speaker, first sentence out of her mouth, go straight to the Constitution. The Democrats want to explain to the American people now this is what the founders envisioned when they were talking about impeachable offenses,” Stephanopoulos insisted.
Read the transcript below:
ABC News Special Report
December 10, 2019
9:20:57AM-9:24:04AM EST
JON KARL: So the president will portray this as a political act, as a biased act by Democrats, and the point right now as you saw right there, those were Democrats announcing those articles of impeachment and as of right now only Democrats publicly supporting them.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she was reluctant to pursue impeachment during the Mueller investigation and after the Mueller report but in the wake of the reports on this Ukraine phone call, she did come forward. Terry Moran who's up there on Capitol Hill was inside the Rayburn room. Nancy Pelosi didn't say much this morning but no question she wanted to be there to show that she is driving and in charge of this process.
TERRY MORAN: In charge of the process and the tone of the process. She wants this to be not typical partisan politics. She knows the Democrats, some members, have been eager to impeach this President from the moment he got into office. One of the challenges is for the Democrats to persuade people this is the real deal, this time it's different. One of the ways you can tell she is insistent that it is a solemn process, that it is constitutional and that it is a duty the Democrats are doing, not a weapon in their partisan war, so they lay out the rationale, they lay out the evidence and they make the case constitutional as I said, I think they do have a bit of a problem, but she now is in control of this process, its pace which is lickety split and its tone, which is solemn and serious.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Lickety split one word for it, this is a fast process of days although the number of days they've considered impeachment now longer than the days devoted to Bill Clinton’s impeachment after the Starr report. David Muir, World News anchor, Adam Schiff the director of the intelligence community did directly address that question as to why they're going so fast, it's to protect the next election.
DAVID MUIR: Exactly what he said, this has been the central argument, we heard it all day yesterday in those nine hours of contentious hearings, Republicans making their final case before this was to happen, along with Democrats as well, but the Republican argument has been a fast track of impeachment, even though you point out the Clinton impeachment was fewer days of what we’ve seen so far. You heard Adam Schiff there say the central argument for Republicans have been ‘why not just wait until you get the witnesses that you want from the white house?’ He tried to draw parallel to don mcgahn waiting eight months. We know they could probably speed that up in an impeachment inquiry but he said ‘if we wait several more months for these witnesses, these documents, essentially the argument amounts to why don't you let him cheat in one more election?’
STEPHANOPOULOS: And they poined to Rudy Giliuani being in Ukraine just this past week. Let's bring in our legal team as well Melissa Murray, professor of constitutional law at NYU. Terry Moran mentioned it, we saw the speaker, first sentence out of her mouth, go straight to the constitution. The Democrats want to explain to the American people now this is what the founders envisioned when they were talking about impeachable offenses.
MELISSA MURRAY: She was the proponent of originalism this morning. This is exactly what the framers contemplated--Adam Schiff reiterated that--the framers said there would be a president at some point in history whose ambitions would exceed the oath of office, would go beyond what the oath of office required and there had to be a congressional remedy to check that and that remedy was impeachment. This is not political, this is not a witch hunt, this is their solemn duty.
