As Democrats become more glum about the possibility of getting witnesses and extending the impeachment trial, their counterparts in the media are sharpening criticism of how the whole thing has been handled. Over two hours on Thursday, Chuck Todd repeatedly lamented “missed opportunities” and failure to be “aggressive.”
Talking to former Senator Kent Conrad, Todd complained about the Democratic strategy: “Do you feel as if the Democrats were as aggressive in questioning? I mean, to me, they spent a lot more time getting Adam Schiff rebuttal time rather than putting — I mean, it took Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to put the President's legal team in the corner.”
A few minutes later, he derided the Democrats as not even hitting the level of moderate GOP Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski:
It seemed one of the tougher questions the Republicans had to deal with came from Senators Collins, Murkowski, on the issue of the president showing interest in the Bidens before spring of '19. I didn't sense many follow-ups on the Democratic side to the Republican side on that question.
Getting pessimistic, Todd asked of panelist Jason Johnson: “Jason, you heard Dick Durbin basically say it's probably going to be the same pattern today. Missed opportunity?”
As though the whole thing was already lost, the MSNBC host concluded that “institutionalists” would fail and that the Senate would be weakened:
I wonder how many institutionalists are worrying about Congress's role on oversight. Because that is a subtext of all of this, which is what authority does the legislative branch have anymore? The way this trial is going, it weakens it.
On Tuesday, ABC’s Terry Moran scolded the strategy for impeachment, berating Democrats for the time line: “Once again, it does raise questions about the Democratic strategy to fast track an impeachment before Christmas.”
A transcript of the questions are below:
MSNBC impeachment coverage
1/30/2020
9:14 AM ET
CHUCK TODD: Do you feel as if the Democrats were as aggressive in questioning? I mean, to me, they spent a lot more time getting Adam Schiff rebuttal time rather than putting — I mean, it took Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins to put the President's legal team in the corner.
9:24 AM ET
TODD: It seemed one of the tougher questions the Republicans had to deal with came from Senators Collins, Murkowski, on the issue of the president showing interest in the Bidens before
spring of '19. I didn't sense many follow-ups on the Democratic side to the Republican side on that question.9:50 AM ET
TODD: Jason, you heard Dick Durbin basically say it's probably going to be the same pattern today. Missed opportunity?
9:51TODD: I wonder how many institutionalists are worrying about Congress's role on oversight. Because that is a subtext of all of this, which is what authority does the legislative branch have anymore? The way this trial is going, it weakens it.
