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Adam Schiff was addressing the nation as much as he was talking to Republican Senators when he said that Donald Trump can’t be trusted to do what’s right.

Schiff said:

Let’s say they start interfering in our election again to help Donald Trump. Can you have the least bit of confidence that Donald Trump will stand up to them and protect our national interest over his own personal interest? You know you can’t. Which makes him dangerous to this country. You know you can’t. You know you can’t count on him. None of us can. None of us can. What happens if China got the message? Now, you can say, well, he’s just joking, of course, he didn’t really mean China should investigate the Bidens. You know that’s no joke. Now, maybe you could have argued three years ago when he said, hey, Russia, if you’re listening, hack Hillary’s emails. Maybe you could give him a freebie and say he was joking. But now we know better. Hours after he did that, we know Russia, in fact, tried to hack Hillary’s emails.

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Video:

Adam Schiff tells Republicans that they know they can't trust Trump to put America ahead of his own personal interests. pic.twitter.com/b4L4A2rypn — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 24, 2020

There’s no mulligan here when it comes to our national security. So what if China does overtly or covertly start to help the Trump campaign? You think he’s going to call them out on it? Or do you think he’s going to give them a better trade deal on it? Can any of us really have the confidence that Donald Trump will put his personal interests ahead of the national interests? Is there really any evidence in this presidency that should give us the ironclad confidence that he would do so? You know you can’t count on him to do that. That’s the sad truth. You know you can’t count on him to do that.

Schiff closed with:

If right doesn’t matter, if right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the framers were.

It doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is. It doesn’t matter how well-written the oa impartiality is. If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost. If truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost. The framers couldn’t protect us from ourselves, if right and truth don’t matter. And you know that what he did was not right. You know, that’s what they do in the old country, that Colonel Vindman’s father came from or the old country that my great-grandfather came from, or the old countries that your ancestors came from or that maybe you came from. But here, right is supposed to matter.

It’s what’s made us the greatest nation on Earth. No constitution can protect us if right doesn’t matter anymore. And you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country. You can trust he will do what’s right for Donald Trump. He’ll do it now. He’s done it before. He’ll do it for the next several months. He’ll do it in the election if he’s allowed to. This is why, if you find him guilty, you must find that he should be removed. Because right matters. Because right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost.

Video:

Adam Schiff tells Republicans that they can't trust Trump to do what is right for the country. pic.twitter.com/WSaTLWgbe5 — Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 24, 2020

When the history of this impeachment trial is documented, Adam Schiff’s spellbinding speech will stand out. Schiff was addressing the country more than he was addressing the lost cause Republican Senate majority.

Right and wrong are on trial as much as Donald Trump, and Adam Schiff’s was as much about why Trump needs to be voted out of office as much as a call for his removal.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

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