Alan Dershowitz talks to the press outside federal courtRichard Drew/AP
Like many people who randomly challenge people to debate them, the president’s attorney Alan Dershowitz is now yelling that he didn’t say something that he did say.
Dershowitz said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that it is not corrupt or impeachable for a president to commit a quid pro quo if he’s doing it to get reelected and it’s in the interest of the public. You might remember it because it was a bonkers thing to say:
“If a president does something which he believes will get him elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment."
— Alan Dershowitz, an attorney on the president's defense team#ImpeachmentPBS pic.twitter.com/1wLk1uJfs7
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) January 29, 2020
The implication is that it’s in the national interest for the president to be reelected. And so they can do whatever they want to make that happen. It was widely reported, by places like the Associated Press.
Today, Dershowitz went on CNN to say that he didn’t say that. (He wrote an op-ed for the Hill to say he didn’t say it too.) And he asked Wolf Blitzer to stop saying he said it, that it was a lie.
Reader, watch the clip yourself and see if you agree.
Dershowitz also defended his statements by saying they were entirely theoretical. “I deliberately did not talk about the facts,” he said, when discussing Trump’s motives.
CNN’s @wolfblitzer and @JeffreyToobin challenge Trump attorney Alan Dershowitz’s controversial impeachment arguments about presidential power. pic.twitter.com/INeIVY3BUk
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) January 31, 2020
Dershowitz was absent from the impeachment trial today, and the CNN interview cleared up why: He didn’t want to skip his ticket to the Super Bowl on Sunday. He also called himself a “liberal Democrat.”
