Chuck Schumer Warns Trump He ‘Better Not Talk About Pardons’ For Cohen, Manafort
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has some choice words for President Trump. According to Real Clear Politics, Schumer spoke about Tuesday’s convictions of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who pleaded guilty to fraud charges. While meeting with the press prior to speaking with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Schumer said, “I understand the president is on his way to a rally. He better not talk about pardons for Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort tonight, or any other time in the future.”
Velshi responded to Schumer, saying that it “sounded like a dare.”
President Trump scheduled a campaign rally in West Virginia with Senate candidate Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey, the Republican Attorney General of West Virginia, is looking to challenge Democrat Joe Manchin in the midterms. The president tweeted about the rally earlier on Tuesday.
Big Rally tonight in West Virginia. Patrick Morrisey is running a GREAT race for U.S. Senate. I have done so much for West Virginia, against all odds, and having Patrick, a real fighter, by my side, would make things so much easier. See you later. CLEAN COAL!!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2018
As The Hill reports, Morrisey leaned into the Republican bias against Hillary Clinton after Manchin described the former secretary of state as “warm, compassionate, engaging.” The crowd chanted “lock her up” and “drain the swamp” after Morrisey expressed disbelief over the comment.
The rally comes hours after decisions were made in the cases of Cohen and Manafort. Cohen “pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign finance law violations.” In Manafort’s case, it took the jury three days of deliberation before they found the 67-year-old guilty of eight counts of bank and tax fraud. Though Manafort was charged with 18 counts of bank and tax fraud, Judge T.S. Ellis III declared a mistrial on 10 of the counts.
On his way to the rally, President Trump was met with numerous questions about Cohen’s guilty plea. The president refused to answer them and made no mention of Manafort’s guilty verdict.
Schumer did not speak any further about the verdicts, saying that he was not well briefed enough on them. But according to The Hill, many Democrats are seeing the verdicts as proof that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference of the 2016 election is no mere “witch hunt.”
As Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said, to pardon Manafort and Cohen would be a “gross abuse of authority.”
