Dershowitz: ‘Schumer and Pelosi have to go’

Alan Dershowitz, an associate of President Trump who served on his impeachment defense team, said Democrats need new leadership in Congress and that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) “have to go.”

“I think they need new leadership. I think Schumer and Pelosi have to go. Schumer because of his history of lying. You know, Pelosi actually called for me to be disbarred … because I had persuaded some senators” in the impeachment trial, Dershowitz said on John Catsimatidis’s radio show Sunday. 

“I think the Dems need new leaders if they have any chance of returning to power,” he added.

Dershowitz’s comments come days after the conclusion of the Senate’s acrimonious impeachment trial.

The House voted in December largely along party lines to impeach Trump on allegations that he abused the power of his office by pressing Ukraine to investigate his political opponents and obstructed Congress by hindering subsequent probes about his dealings with the country and its officials.

The Senate acquitted Trump this week, with only Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) breaking party lines to vote to convict on abuse of power. 

Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor and a contributor to The Hill, said this was a good week for the country and its laws. However, he said he believes that the impeachment trial reflects poorly on lawmakers in the lower chamber of Congress.  

“This week was a good week for United States Constitution. The Constitution won,” Dershowitz said. “I think the House of Representatives disgraced itself by its partisan vote. And I think the Senate did the right thing by protecting the Constitution. I’m proud of America. The system works.”

Dershowitz raised eyebrows and drew fierce Democratic rebukes after he gave his defense of the president during the trial. 

“If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” he said on the Senate floor. 

Schumer hit Dershowitz after his remarks, saying that if the lawyer believed his argument to defend President Trump, then it was questionable whether he believed believed former President Nixon committed an impeachable offense. 

“By Professor Dershowitz’s logic, President Nixon did nothing wrong in Watergate,” Schumer said, adding that the logic was “a load of nonsense.”

Dershowitz later backtracked, saying the media was distorting his remarks, and he dismissed on Sunday Schumer’s criticism of his argument.

“Schumer just decided to lie about it. And it’s shocking to me that somebody of his standing … would stoop so low as to just make up a story,” Dershowitz fired back. 

John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.