Jake Tapper Calls Out Jay Sekulow for ‘Factually Not Accurate’ Impeachment Claim: Spreading ‘A Lot of Misinformation’
During a break in day two of the Senate impeachment trial, CNN’s Jake Tapper called out Jay Sekulow, one of the top members of President Donald Trump’s defense team, for a claim he made about the articles of impeachment.
As Gloria Borger talked about viewers feeling “confused” by all this, Tapper said, “One of the reasons there’s also confusion is because there is a lot of misinformation. A lot of things that are being stated that are not true.”
He called out Sekulow for making “just factually not accurate” comments when he said the following: “Adam Schiff today talked about quid pro quo. Notice what’s not in the articles of impeachment. Allegations or accusations of quid pro quo. That’s because they didn’t exist. So, you know, there is a lot of things we’ll rebut but we’ll do it in a orderly and I hope more systematic fashion.”
“That’s Jay Sekulow falsely stating in the articles of impeachment there are no allegations or accusations of quid pro quo,” Tapper said. “It’s true that the words quid pro quo, ‘this for that,’ do not appear in the articles of impeachment. But they certainly do describe this for that.”
He proceeded to read out a portion of article one that outlines the quid pro quo argument before asking, “I am not a lawyer. But does that not describe a quid pro quo to the letter?”
At one point Tapper also called out the White House for sharing that argument from Sekulow:
"Adam Schiff today talked about quid pro quo.
Notice what's not in the articles of impeachment: allegations or accusations of quid pro quo.
That's because they didn't exist." pic.twitter.com/RbbZS9nQ0u
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 22, 2020
You can watch above, via CNN.
