Alan Dershowitz appeared on CNN’s State of the Union to split hairs about whether the charges against President Donald Trump, for which he has already been, in Nancy Pelosi’s words, “impeached forever,” are actually impeachable. Once he started talking about Millard Fillmore’s Supreme Court appointee Benjamin R. Curtis (1809 – 1874) viewers were quickly reminded that despite his celebrity, Dershowitz is, in fact, a Harvard professor, which is to say good luck following whatever the heck he was talking about.
But the noted lawyer, whose previous clients include O.J. Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein, Patty Hearst, Jim Bakker, Mike Tyson, and Claus von Bülow, and who consulted with Harvey Weinstein’s defense team, did speak the language of the common man during the near-14-minute interview. Alan Dershowitz is ready to hit the gridiron.
Asked by Brianna Keilar and Jeffrey Toobin to clarify if he is, as the White House has stated, part of the Senate trial counsel or “not a full-fledged member” of the team as he has claimed, Dershowitz, who plans to argue before the Senate on behalf of the President, refused to label himself as part of Trump’s defense. After a lengthy back-and-forth equivocation, he eventually agreed with Keilar’s suggestion that he considers himself as “special teams” from the NFL.
“Fine,” Dershowitz sighed. “I’m the kicker and I can kick the field goal that wins the game. Fine.”
The noted author, who has griped that past support of Donald Trump has made vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard difficult, appeared not to hear Keilar’s comment that football’s “special teams are still part of the team.”
Why someone who has authored a book with the unambiguous title The Case Against Impeaching Trump is hesitant to come out and say he’s defending the President is something that I’m sure he’d tell you, if you could afford the retainer and billable hours.