Impeachment defense lawyer David Schoen appeared to take a break from his job of defending former President Donald Trump on Wednesday night to wear the hat of the nation’s unifier — suggesting that graphic newly-released video by impeachment managers from the deadly Capitol attack last month “does nothing for healing.”
“I offered to stipulate right in the opening address that I made that the riot happened, it was horrific, and so on,” Schoen said during a Fox News interview late Wednesday.
“Showing that tape over and over again, the same slides, and so on —and manipulated by them—does nothing for healing. It’s the exact opposite,” he added.
Schoen says House Impeachment managers wanted screen time all to themselves. He also says showing ”that tape” over and over again does nothing for healing pic.twitter.com/a486MOOPem
— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) February 11, 2021
The comments come after House impeachment lawyers released previously unseen Capitol security footage that offered a raw look into the violent actions of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“It’s continuing to open wounds for the American public and it is something that President Trump has condemned in no uncertain terms — the terrible violence that went on there. So there’s not an issue about that, they’re just hoping to drum up emotion and get their last shots in at President Trump,” Schoen said.
The plea to brush aside accountability, which has been frequently been dressed as a call for unity, is not unfamiliar to the Republican lawmakers who were slow to acknowledge President Joe Biden’s electoral victory as they puffed up election conspiracy theories but quick to demand that the country move on immediately after the violent siege of the Capitol.
The new evidence was introduced by Delegate Stacey Plaskett (VI), who marked each clip with a time stamp. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) continued the presentation which included violent scenes and panicked audio from staffers sheltered-in-place and frenzied Capitol police officers.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham appeared to grow impatient with Schoen during the more than five-minute interview as he flitted from exhausted unity rhetoric to revisiting failed arguments against the constitutionality of impeachment which had been effectively swatted down a day before.
At one point she even urged Schoen to dig up video on Democratic lawmakers appearing to mobilize their constituents against Trump following the 2016 presidential race.
“We have to show that the other side does that morning, noon, and night, for most of Trump’s presidency. You’ve got to show that. It’s a hint. I’m giving you a hint here,” she said.
Ingraham is just one among the ranks of conservatives — that included Trump — who have been dissatisfied by the former president’s legal defense team.
Ingraham had blasted Trump attorney, Bruce Castor on Tuesday, suggesting he had done a “terrible” job of defending the former president.
