Fox News contributor Karl Rove lamented on Sunday that if Rudy Giuliani leads the defense of President Donald Trump’s impeachment in the Senate, there is a “strong likelihood” that the president will be convicted.
Over the weekend, Giuliani – who infamously called for “trial by combat” hours before the Capitol rebellion – told ABC News that he is on the second team to defend the president’s impeachment and that he will argue that Trump could not have incited a rebel crowd to attack the Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the election of President-elect Joe Biden.
The defense of the president of the impeachment team, according to Giuliani, will be to prove that Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud – which have been rejected by dozens of courts – are indeed true.
“They basically claimed that anytime [Trump] it says that electoral fraud, electoral fraud – or me, or anyone else – is inciting violence; that these words are words of struggle because they are totally false, ”said Giuliani. “Well, if you can prove it to be true, or at least true enough to be a legitimate point of view, then they are no longer words of struggle.”
During the Sunday broadcast of Fox News SundayAnchor Chris Wallace asked Rove – a longtime Republican strategist who criticized Trump’s “stolen” election rhetoric – if he felt there was a chance that 17 Republicans would join Senate Democrats to condemn Trump and potentially stop him from run for office again.
With Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell allegedly open to the idea of condemning the president for incitement, Rove said Giuliani’s defense strategy would get many Republican lawmakers to get on the impeachment train.
“Rudy Giuliani laid a very bad course for the president in the morning papers when he suggested that the argument would be: ‘Well, there could have been no incitement because all the charges of widespread electoral fraud are true,'” said Rove. sighed. “Well, these accusations and the so-called experts that the campaign brought together to defend them have been rejected by more than 50 courts, with judges appointed by President Trump, President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton and I think even a judge Reagan. “
“If it’s Rudy Giuliani’s defense, there is a high probability that more than 17 Republicans will do it, because essentially that argument is: ‘That was justified, the attack on the Capitol and the attempt to end the Congressional hearing to certify the election were justified because all of these charges are true. ‘And frankly, they are not,’ he added.
Rove went on to say that Trump and his allies had every opportunity to prove their baseless allegations in court and did not do so repeatedly, reiterating that if Giuliani takes this route “it increases the likelihood that more than 17 Republicans will vote for conviction.”
Although Giuliani insisted he was assigned to lead Trump’s defense and was seen visiting the White House this weekend, Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley appeared to contradict the claims of the former New York mayor.
“President Trump has not yet determined which lawyer or law firm will represent him in the infamous attack on our constitution and democracy, known as the ‘impeachment fraud’,” the spokesman tweeted on Saturday night. “We will keep you informed.”