Trump blasts impeachment proceedings in letter to Pelosi; House panel sets rules for impeachment debate ahead of vote; McConnell, Schumer spar over witnesses at impeachment trial; Giuliani: Trump "very supportive" of my work in Ukraine

The Lead with Jake Tapper

CNN

News

3.5 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2019

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trump letter to Pelosi: abuse of power charge "completely disingenuous, meritless, and baseless", obstruction of congress charge is "preposterous and dangerous", more due process given "to those accused in the Salem witch trials", "you are offending Americans of faith" by claiming you pray for me; Trump: I take "zero" responsibility for impeachment; House panel holds final impeachment hearing before vote; McConnell on impeachment: "I'm not an impartial juror"; Schumer: preventing witnesses at trial is covering up for Trump; Poll of polls: 46% say Trump should be impeached & removed; House Dems poised to impeach president Trump tomorrow; Trump's ex-deputy campaign manager Rick Gates sentenced to 45 days; Giuliani says he needed former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine "out of the way";To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CNN breaking news.
0:04.0	Welcome to the lead name, I'm Jake Tapper, and we begin today with breaking news.
0:07.5	President Trump, ahead of the historic impeachment vote in the House tomorrow has sent a stunning and scathing stream of
0:15.6	consciousness letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the letter appears to be
0:19.6	something of a dictated 2,700 word rant almost as if it's 60 angry tweets cobble together and put
0:27.3	on White House stationary, complete with the now familiar all caps, multiple exclamation points, accusations, projections, falsehoods, insults,
0:37.2	grievances, about 40 references to himself, I, me, my, and for to the American people.
0:44.5	A letter that President Trump says he wrote for the quote,
0:47.9	purpose of history.
0:49.3	The letter accuses Democrats of violating their oaths of office and cheapening impeachment trying to
0:54.2	steal the 2020 election and quote declaring open war on American democracy by
0:59.8	pursuing impeachment President Trump calls the abuse of Congress article of impeachment
1:04.9	a quote, I'm sorry, the abuse of power article of impeachment, a completely disingenuous, meritless,
1:10.6	and baseless invention of Pelosi's imagination, and in terms
1:13.7	terms of the case for obstruction of Congress, quote,
1:16.5	preposterous and dangerous. The president misrepresenting a number of
1:20.6	quotes from Speaker Pelosi and Joe Biden, also accusing Pelosi of either
1:25.1	lying when Pelosi says that she prays for him or that she prays for him quote in a
1:31.0	negative sense.
1:32.6	And of course the president also claims that his phone call
1:34.8	with the Ukrainian president was perfect
1:36.6	when we know if his own administration officials
	...

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