Day 3 of impeachment trial: Focus on Trump’s alleged abuse of power as Biden rejects witness deal

Democrats leap to debunk claims against Joe and Hunter Biden as Trump warns of the party’s strife if they were called as witnesses.

Hunter Biden, left, pictured with his father, Joe Biden. The former US Vice President says he won’t testify in the impeachment trial in exchange for a Republican witness. Picture: Getty

Joe Biden and his son Hunter have become a flashpoint of the impeachment trial after Democrats strongly defended them while Donald Trump said it would be a big problem for Democrats if they were called as witnesses.

The move by Democrats to try to debunk claims against the Bidens was made in anticipation that the president’s lawyers will target the Bidens over their activities in Ukraine when the president’s team present their defence to the Senate at the weekend.

During the second day of the Democrats presenting their impeachment case against the president, Democrat Sylvia Garcia said it was clear that Mr Trump’s decision to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens was because he feared Mr Biden as a formidable political opponent in the coming election.

“There was no basis for the investigation the president was pursuing and pushing. None. He was doing it only for his own political benefit,” Ms Garcia said. There was “no evidence, nothing, nada”′ to suggest that Biden did anything improper in dealings with Ukraine.

Ms Garcia said Mr Trump did not focus on the issue until last year when “Biden became the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination and polls showed that he had the largest head-to-head lead against President Trump. That became a problem.”

“There is no comparison — none at all — between what he did and President Trump’s abuse of power,” she said.

Impeachment was designed for the kind of corrupt scheme that President Trump orchestrated when he pressured Ukraine to interfere in our elections.

Impeachment was designed to ensure that nobody, not even the President, is above the law.

¡Nadie!

— Rep. Sylvia Garcia (@RepSylviaGarcia) January 23, 2020

Our own president is helping our adversary [Russia] attack our democratic institutions and the integrity of our elections.

And for what? For his own political gain.

This was the type of behavior the Framers of the Constitution were most afraid of, and it should concern us all.

— Rep. Sylvia Garcia (@RepSylviaGarcia) January 23, 2020

Mr Trump, who has accused the Bidens of corrupt behaviour in Ukraine, said the Democrats did not want them to appear as witnesses because they feared what they would say.

“The Democrats don’t want a Witness Trade because Shifty Schiff, the Bidens, the fake Whistleblower (& his lawyer), the second Whistleblower (who vanished after I released the Transcripts), the so-called “informer”, & many other Democrat disasters, would be a BIG problem for them!,” Mr Trump tweeted.

The Democrats don’t want a Witness Trade because Shifty Schiff, the Biden’s, the fake Whistleblower(& his lawyer), the second Whistleblower (who vanished after I released the Transcripts), the so-called “informer”, & many other Democrat disasters, would be a BIG problem for them!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2020

Republicans say that when he was Vice President Mr Biden tried to remove Ukraine’s corruption prosecutor to prevent the prosecutor from investigating the Ukraine energy company Burisma where his son Hunter Biden was a board member.

Ms Garcia denied this theory, saying that Mr Biden tried to get rid of the prosecutor with the support of US allies because the prosecutor was corrupt and that at that time there was no active investigation into Burisma.

Some Republicans want to call both Mr Biden and Hunter Biden as witnesses but Democrats have opposed their appearance.

Republican Lindsey Graham said: “I don’t know anything about the Biden connection to the Ukraine. So when the managers tell me this has been looked at and debunked -- by who?”

Mr Biden, who is campaigning in Iowa, has said he will not be part of any proposed ‘witness swap’ between Democrats and Republicans.

He said Democrats had no choice but to impeach Mr Trump.

““People ask the question, ‘Isn’t the president going to be stronger and harder to beat if he survives this (trial)?’ Mr Biden said Friday (AEDT). “Yes, probably. But Congress has no choice.”

It’s going to take everyone rolling up their sleeves and doing their part to beat Donald Trump and take back this country. And with just 11 days until Iowa, your help has never been more important. Head to https://t.co/0yBebrK3rY to take action from anywhere in the country.

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) January 23, 2020

One of the president’s lawyers, Jay Sekulow said that when they present their defence of the president to the Senate at the weekend, they would show how the president’s actions were far from an impeachable offence.

“We’ve got lawyers that are going to put forward when our side of the case goes that represents multiple schools of thought on what is and is not an impeachable offence, but they have one thing in common, that the actions alleged and the actions of the President do not reach that level no matter which school of thought you’re on,” Mr Sekulow said.

Democrat Jerry Nadler told the Senate that the evidence presented represented a clear abuse of power by the president in seeking to pressure Ukraine to investigate Mr Biden.

“No president has ever used his office to compel a foreign nation to help him cheat in our elections -- prior presidents would be shocked to the core by such conduct and rightly so,” Mr Nadler said.

“President Trump has made clear in word and deed he will persist in such conduct if he is not removed from power. He poses a continuing threat to our nation, to the integrity of our elections, to our democratic order. He must not remain in power one moment longer,” he said.

Democrats are hoping that they will win a vote late next week on whether new witnesses should be called in the trial.

Senate Democrat minority leader Chuck Schumer said if new witnesses were not allowed, then any acquittal of Mr Trump would ring hollow.

“I will say this to the president and any of my Republican friends: If the American people believe this is not a fair trial — which right now, they seem to believe, because there are no witnesses and documents — acquittal will have zero value to the president or to the Republicans,” Mr Schumer said.

The Democrats will finish presenting their case on Saturday (AEDT) after which the president’s lawyers will have three days to present their case to the Senate.

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)