Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff posed serious questions for Republicans and for Americans in a powerful closing statement after Tuesday’s round of impeachment hearings. Americans, he said, have to ask of ourselves, "Are we prepared to accept that a president of the United States can leverage official acts, military assistance, White House meetings, to get an investigation of a political rival? Are we prepared to say well, you know, I guess that's just what we should expect in a president of the United States. I don't think we want to go there."
Republicans, seem to be fine with it, he said. "My Republican colleagues, all they seem to be upset about with this is not that the president sought an investigation of his political rival, not that he withheld a White House meeting and $400 million in aid we all passed in a bipartisan basis to pressure Ukraine to do those investigations," he said. None of that's the problem. "Their objection is that he got caught. Their objection is that someone blew the whistle, and they would like this whistleblower identified, and the president wants this whistleblower punished. That's their objection. Not that the president engaged in this conduct, but that he got caught."
Then he gave a history lesson for his colleagues. The founding fathers, he said "provided a remedy, that remedy being impeachment, they had the very concern that a president of the United States may betray the national security interests of the country for personal interests. They put that remedy in the Constitution not because they wanted to willy nilly overturn elections, no, because they wanted a powerful anti-corruption mechanism when that corruption came from the highest office in the land."
You can watch the full statement below.