Richard Painter: There Was WH Coordination During Past Impeachments, But It is ‘Brazen’ for Trump

Former Bush ethics chief Richard Painter noted on MSNBC that past impeachments saw White House coordination with senators, but it is “brazen” for President Donald Trump’s impeachment.

Painter was appearing with anchor Yasmin Vossoughian, who was filling in for Ari Melber as host of The Beat Monday evening, and political analyst Elise Jordan.

“There is some precedent here that there was coordination as well during the Clinton impeachment trial,” Vossoughian noted to Painter.

“Impartiality in my view means there is no coordination. Now there are a number of things going on. It was 20 years ago that I believe that Tom Daschle and some of the Democrats were doing more that type of thing than they should have been, but it was nowhere near as brazen as what Mitch McConnell is talking about now,” Painter said. “Whether or not some Democrats violated it in some ways almost 20 years ago, there is absolutely no excuse for Mitch McConnell. He is going on national television and he is saying he is going to be working basically hand-in-glove with the White House.”

Vossoughian then asked Jordan if it was wise of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to withhold the impeachment articles to attempt to get a better deal in the impeachment trial.

Jordan referred to Trump tweeting about Pelosi multiple times during the holiday season following his impeachment, saying “she has gotten into his head and she isn’t playing by the traditional norms of going ahead and proceeding.”

“She is actually playing dirty a little bit. If Democrats are successfully going to go up against Trump, they need to embrace this asymmetric political warfare,” Jordan continued.

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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