Fox’s Napolitano: Trump loses the ‘unfair’ argument by not participating in hearings

Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano said Tuesday that President Trump is “losing” his argument that the impeachment process is unfair, since he’s refusing the opportunity to participate in it ahead of a House Judiciary Committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday. 

“The president, if he participates, his lawyer would have the right to call somebody who says ‘it’s not an impeachable offense,’ ” said Napolitano, a frequent Trump critic, in a Fox appearance. 

“He also loses the argument it’s unfair if he doesn’t take the opportunity to participate himself,” he added. 

The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday called “The Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald J. Trump: Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment,” in which legal scholars will testify. 

The White House on Sunday told the Judiciary panel that it will not participate in the hearing, calling the process “highly partisan.” 

Napolitano on Tuesday also said he believes Trump’s actions are impeachable because they involve the possible crimes of bribery and asking a foreign national for campaign aid. 

“It seems clear that the president pushed an agenda which had the Ukrainians trying to do something against the president’s political opponent and while he pushed that agenda, he held up $391 million in aid,” he said. “In my view, it is clearly impeachable because it involves two potential crimes.”

Napolitano added that the president’s allies “are free to say that’s not an impeachable offense, but they are not free to say it didn’t happen, because the evidence that it happened is overwhelming.”

The House in September began its impeachment inquiry into Trump over his dealings with Ukraine, and Democrats have accused the president of bribery. Trump has denied wrongdoing and blasted the probe as a witch hunt. 

Napolitano has previously described Trump’s actions as “impeachable.”