"Today, we are going to confront them on the merits of their argument," Cipollone added, as the President's legal team accused the House of bending the facts, and ignoring evidence in favor of Mr. Trump.
"Let's get our facts straight," said the President's personal lawyer Jay Sekulow.
"The House managers never told you any of this," said White House lawyer Michael Purpura. "Why not?"
White House Counsel Pat Cipollone: "Today, we are going to confront them on the merits of their argument. Now they have the burden of proof and they have not come close to meeting it."
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 25, 2020
Full video: https://t.co/OZkWUFBtfB pic.twitter.com/xC7nGkLafB
Our case against lyin’, cheatin’, liddle’ Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, Nervous Nancy Pelosi, their leader, dumb as a rock AOC, & the entire Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrat Party, starts today at 10:00 A.M. on @FoxNews, @OANN or Fake News @CNN or Fake News MSDNC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2020
“Impeachment shouldn't be a shell game,” Cipollone said, as the President's team used just two of their 24 hours of arguments - they will continue on Monday afternoon.
GOP Senators rushed to the microphones after Saturday's session to denounce what Democrats had presented earlier in the week.
"Within two hours, I thought the White House Counsel and their team entirely shredded the case which has been presented by the House managers," said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).
"It completely undermined the case of the Democrats and truly undermined the credibility of Adam Schiff," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).
"It was pretty stark today," said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), who then used the famous quote from radio show host Paul Harvey to make the case for the President.
"Now you know the rest of the story," Lankford told reporters.
"This was a good day for America frankly," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
"I don't believe anything they have said so far is impeachable," said Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) of the House case, as there continues to be no public evidence that any GOP Senators are ready to break with President Trump.
WATCH: We’ll hear from the president’s lawyers today. If his defense is as strong as he claims, why don’t they want us to hear from witnesses? pic.twitter.com/ijxWwSG8kg
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 25, 2020
Democrats have weakened the Constitutional standard for impeachment because of political self-interest. pic.twitter.com/pQ96ZDLk1w
— David Perdue (@Perduesenate) January 25, 2020
Playing out behind the scenes was the ongoing partisan tussle over whether current and former Trump Administration officials - whose testimony has been blocked during the impeachment investigation by President Trump - should be issued subpoenas by the U.S. Senate.
"I don't know how you have a trial when you know there is evidence that you haven't seen, or witnesses you haven't heard from that have first hand knowledge," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).
"A fair trial means witnesses and documents," said Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer.
The defense attorneys have wrapped after 2 hours. GOP senators are saying they did a great job dismantling House case. Here is a scene from the media scrum afterward. pic.twitter.com/Tw3xZl6cB7
— Tia Mitchell, AJC’s Washington Correspondent (@ajconwashington) January 25, 2020
The trial resumes at 1 pm ET on Monday.
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