Schumer on Trump’s Pelosi letter: ‘He’s obviously under a great deal of duress’

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asserted that President Trump’s scathing letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday indicates the president is “obviously under a great deal of duress” on the eve of the House’s impeachment vote.

CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Schumer about the six-page letter from Trump to Pelosi objecting to the impeachment process. The letter used numerous exclamation points and compared the inquiry to the Salem witch trials.

“Well, he’s obviously under a great deal of duress, but if he thinks he can bully Nancy Pelosi into backing off, he’s with the wrong customer,” Schumer responded on CNN.

“The amazing thing about President Trump as president and before — the very things he does, he accuses others of doing. Bully? This is the most bullying president we have ever had.”

Trump is “obviously under a great deal of duress,” says Democratic Minority Leader @SenSchumer of the President’s letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“But if he thinks he can bully Nancy Pelosi into backing off, he’s with the wrong customer,” he adds. https://t.co/9bxyTNVCa1 pic.twitter.com/FcNIFWQ7iQ

— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) December 18, 2019

“These are serious charges. Impeachment is a very serious process, and we in the Senate want to keep it that way,” Schumer continued.

“We want a trial that’s not focusing on conspiracy theories or rants and raves from those who are known liars who put out conspiracy theories on the right. We want the truth. We want, as Joe Friday used to say in ‘Dragnet,’ just the facts.”

Schumer told Burnett that the witnesses requested by the Senate’s Democratic minority are “people who can produce the facts” and added that “I don’t know what they’re going to say. … They may produce exculpatory evidence for the president.”

Trump and Democrats have pushed for the Senate trial on the articles of impeachment against the president to include witnesses both for and against the president. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that the Senate trial should not include witnesses.

“I think we’ve heard enough. After we’ve heard the arguments, we ought to vote and move on,” McConnell told Fox News Radio  earlier Tuesday.

Trump later in the day said that McConnell should be able to decide on witnesses, indicating he was prepared to back down on his repeated calls to see former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and other figures testify.

The House is set to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment against Trump, accusing him of abuse of power with his dealings with Ukraine and obstruction of Congress by refusing to comply with the House impeachment inquiry.

Nearly all Democrats are expected to vote for the articles, which Republicans have broadly condemned. The vote on the articles would then shift the impeachment process to the GOP-led Senate.