meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The NPR Politics Podcast

Trump's Legal Team Begins Impeachment Defense, Says The President Did 'Nothing Wrong'

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

News, Politics, Daily News

4.425.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump "did absolutely nothing wrong," White House counsel Pat Cipollone said Saturday, as lawyers representing the president got their first shot to poke holes in the impeachment case made this week by Democrats.

Saturday's proceedings, which lasted a little more than two hours, set up the White House arguments in the impeachment trial. The president's team told senators that the House managers selectively withheld evidence in their arguments against the president.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, Congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, and justice correspondent Ryan Lucas.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at nprpolitics@npr.org.
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast.

0:06.4

It is 1248 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, January 25th.

0:11.7

I'm Tamer Keith.

0:12.7

I cover the White House.

0:13.7

I'm Kelsey Snile.

0:14.7

I cover Congress.

0:15.7

And I'm Ryan Lucas.

0:16.7

I cover the Justice Department.

0:17.7

Hey colleagues, why don't we take our seats?

0:20.3

And day five of the impeachment trial of President Trump opened like the last four days.

0:26.2

The Senate will convene as a court of impeachment.

0:28.6

But today was a new chapter because the President's legal team began laying out his defense.

0:35.4

White House counsel Pat Sepoloni started them off.

0:38.2

We believe that when you hear the facts, and that's what we intend to cover today, the facts,

0:46.4

you will find that the President did absolutely nothing wrong.

0:51.7

So today was sort of like the start of this and it was really a preview.

0:56.6

They had said that it would be like a trailer.

0:58.5

It was like a trailer because they only went for about two hours.

1:02.6

But we got a pretty decent preview of the arguments that we can expect to hear in much more

1:08.4

depth over Monday and Tuesday.

1:11.6

Kelsey and Ryan, what stood out to you?

1:14.1

I think one of the themes that they were starting to establish was that Democrats did not

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.