House

Impeachment witness apologizes for mentioning Barron Trump in hearing

by Rachel Frazin - 12/04/19 6:00 PM ET

Stanford Law School professor Pamela Karlan apologized on Wednesday after she received backlash for mentioning President Trump’s 13-year-old son, Barron Trump, during the impeachment hearing.

“I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the president’s son. It was wrong of me to do that. I wish the president would apologize, obviously, for the things that he’s done that’s wrong, but I do regret having said that,” Karlan said.

The witness’s apology came after remarks she made earlier in the day while explaining the president’s rights under the Constitution.

“Contrary to what President Trump has said, Article 2 does not give him the power to do anything he wants, and I’ll just give you one example that shows you the difference between him and a king, which is the Constitution says there can be no titles of nobility, so while the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron,” she said.

Pamela Karlan: “I want to apologize for what I said earlier about the president’s son. It was wrong of me to do that. I wish the president would apologize, obviously, for the things that he’s done that’s wrong, but I do regret having said that.” pic.twitter.com/7lYiRWCKjw

— CSPAN (@cspan) December 4, 2019

Republicans panned the Democratic witness over the remark, saying that the president’s child should not be brought up in the hearing.

First lady Melania Trump criticized the remark while defending her son, saying in a tweet that “a minor child deserves privacy and should be kept out of politics.”

“Pamela Karlan, you should be ashamed of your very angry and obviously biased public pandering, and using a child to do it,” the first lady wrote.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham also called the comment “classless” in a tweet.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of President Trump’s allies, confronted Karlan about her invocation of Barron during the hearing on Friday afternoon, saying it made h er “look mean.”

Karlan was one of three constitutional scholars invited by Democrats to testify during the Judiciary Committee hearing as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Republicans invited one scholar to testify for the hearing, while the White House declined to participate.

Tags Donald Trump Matt Gaetz Melania Trump Stephanie Grisham