***To read the full blog, please check out the complete post on NewsBusters***
Day one of the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Trump was marked by a debate between the Democratic managers and the President’s legal team over the proposed rules for the proceedings. But instead of just reporting on the argument Trump’s legal team was making, CBS correspondent Chip Reid decided to insert his own editorial hot take against the lawyers.
After spending much of his Tuesday CBS Evening News report touting New York Senator Chuck Schumer (D), Reid slimed Trump’s legal representation by suggesting they weren’t behaving in a lawyerly fashion. Of course, that editorial remark came complete with edited soundbites:
PAT CIPOLLONE (President Trump’s legal team): Partisan impeachment is like stealing an election.
REID: At times today, the President's legal team sounded less like lawyers and more like President Trump in his angry tweets.
JAY SEKULOW (President Trump’s legal team): Why are we here? Are we here because of a phone call?
CIPOLLONE: And it's outrageous. It's outrageous. And the American people won't stand for it, I'll tell you that right now.
There was actually more to that quote from Jay Sekulow. Luckily, NBC Nightly News actually included it in their cut. “Why are we here? Are we here because of a phone call? Or, are we here before this great body because since the President was sworn into office, there was a desire to see him removed,” he declared.
(...)