Chief Justice John Roberts was "unfair" to chide both the House impeachment managers and President Donald Trump's defense team during early morning arguments in Trump's Senate impeachment trial for their contentious language, Sen. Mike Lee said Wednesday.
"I'm grateful to the chief justice," the Utah Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "He did a good job. His demeanor was great; he maintained his patience. I thought it was unfair of him to direct that at both sets of counsels. It felt like collective punishment for isolated guilt."
Roberts, after a tense exchange between House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler and Trump's attorneys, stepped in to reprimand both sides, saying that he thought "it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president's counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world's greatest deliberative body," reports CNN.
He also asked them to "avoid speaking in a manner and using language that is not conducive to civil discourse."
Roberts' comments came after Nadler told senators that voting to deny certain witnesses was "treacherous" and against the United States. Trump's defense team retorted that Nadler should apologize to Trump and the American people, and that he should be embarrassed by his actions.
"This was the fault of the House management prosecution team," Lee said Wednesday. "They were rude, they were insulting, demeaning, not just of the president but their opposing counsel and indeed to the Senate itself."
Lee also rejected reports from The Washington Post and others that Democrats are interested in offering up Hunter Biden or his father, former Vice President Joe Biden, as a witness in exchange for the testimony of former national security adviser John Bolton, as he thinks there is no need for witnesses at all.
"I don't think it will happen," said Lee. "I've heard that rumor swirling for a while. It was certainly swirling last night. I heard from others that it's bunk. That's not going to happen."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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