Rove: Chances of conviction rise if Giuliani represents Trump in Senate impeachment trial

Authored by thehill.com and submitted by TheZeezer
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Republican strategist Karl Rove Karl Christian RoveKarl Rove tears into Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell over election claims The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by Mastercard - Dem leaders back smaller COVID-19 relief bill as pandemic escalates More conservatives break with Trump over election claims MORE suggested on Sunday that President Trump Donald TrumpFacebook temporarily bans ads for weapons accessories following Capitol riots Sasse, in fiery op-ed, says QAnon is destroying GOP Section 230 worked after the insurrection, but not before: How to regulate social media MORE is at higher risk of the Senate voting to convict him in his second impeachment trial if his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiWhat our kids should know after the Capitol Hill riot How to stop Trump's secret pardons Trump tells aides not to pay Giuliani's legal fees: report MORE spearheads his defense.

Rove said during a “Fox News Sunday” appearance that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellBoebert communications director resigns amid Capitol riot: report Urgency mounts for new voting rights bill Senate Democrats leery of nixing filibuster MORE’s (R-Ky.) statements on the trial, in which he did not instruct Senate Republicans to vote against conviction, are “a sign that every Republican senator needs to take this seriously.”

“I think it’s all going to boil down to what the president’s defense is,” Rove added.

“Rudy Giuliani charted a very bad course in the morning papers,” Rove said, pointing to comments by the attorney suggesting the president could not have incited the deadly riots at the Capitol earlier this month because his unproven claims of election theft were true. The House last week impeached Trump over his role in the rioting, making him the only president to be impeached twice.

The election fraud argument, Rove noted on Sunday, “has been rejected by over 50 courts,” including some Trump appointees.

A Giuliani defense, he added, "raises the likelihood of more than 17 Republicans voting for conviction."

Giuliani also told ABC News that he's working on Trump's impeachment defense and that the president could not have incited the crowds because they did not immediately march on the Capitol after his speech at a rally.

“You'd have to have people running out. You'd have to have people running out of that frozen speech right up to the Capitol, and that's basically incitement,” he said.

The former New York mayor spoke at the same rally and called for “trial by combat.”

"I’m willing to stake my reputation, the president is willing to stake his reputation, on the fact that we’re going to find criminality [in the election]," he said at the time.

Speaking to The Hill’s Brett Samuels last week, Giuliani insisted the term was a reference to the HBO series “Game of Thrones” and not a literal invocation of violence.

IWasBornSoYoung on January 17th, 2021 at 15:36 UTC »

I feel like him and Trump in court together is the series finale we all deserve

patentlyfakeid on January 17th, 2021 at 15:35 UTC »

Yup, the left has had no greater champion. Get that man another can of shoe polish, a fart pillow and send him back into the fight.

bickering_fool on January 17th, 2021 at 15:33 UTC »

Giuliani taking it on, on a no-win no-fee basis.