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Chris Wallace: If I’m Trump, ‘I would not be especially pleased’ with White House defense

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“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace on Tuesday said that he would “not be especially pleased” if he were President Trump watching the White House defense of him in the opening round of the Senate impeachment trial.

The comments come as Democrats would need 20 Republican senators to join them in a vote to convict Trump and remove him from office.

“I think that’s pretty smart on the part of the Democrats, they are taking this time to, in effect, make their opening argument, to make the case against the president, to make the case for why the Senate needs to hear from more witnesses, more evidence, and I think to some degree that the White House lawyers are making a mistake,” Wallace said during Fox News’s live coverage.

“They are basically saying, there’s nothing to see here, all of this is bogus, while the House managers are taking every second of their one hour to make whatever case they want to make,” the longtime anchor continued. “I’d be very curious to see what the White House lawyers use. My bet is it wasn’t even half an hour. And this is being watched by millions of people on the three cable channels, I don’t know why you wouldn’t take the time and every second you have to make an argument on behalf of the president.”

“If I were the President watching this,” Wallace concluded. “I would not be especially pleased.”

Trump said he was pleased with his legal team’s performance in an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernan from Davos, Switzerland, while attending the World Economic Forum.

“I did get to see some of it. It’s a hoax. It’s a total hoax,” Trump said. “I think the team was really good. The facts are all on our side.”

The president also told reporters he would embrace testifying at his own impeachment trial but is unlikely to do so at the behest of his legal team.

“I’d love to go, wouldn’t that be great?” Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful? I’d love to sit right in the front row and stare in their corrupt faces. I’d love to do it.”  

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was able to pass a rules resolution strictly along party lines in a 53-47 vote just before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, which included a rejection of additional witnesses and documents at the outset of the proceeding pressed by Democrats. 

Tags Chris Wallace Donald Trump Fox News Impeachment Mitch McConnell Senate trial

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