Dems say oust Trump or he’ll betray again; ‘He is who he is’

Closing out their case, House Democrats warned in Donald Trump's impeachment trial that the president will persist in abusing his power and endangering American democracy unless Congress intervenes to remove him before the 2020 election.

They then implored Republican senators to allow new testimony before rendering a final verdict.

"Give America a fair trial," Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead Democratic impeachment manager, said on Jan. 24. "She's worth it."

Schiff delivered Democrats' final remarks in the Senate trial after three days of methodical and impassioned arguments detailing charges that Trump abused power by asking Ukraine for politically motivated probes of political rivals, then obstructed Congress' investigation into the matter. The president's lawyers get their first chance to defend him on Jan. 24, and are expected to argue he acted appropriately.

The opening arguments appear to have done nothing to shake Republicans' support for Trump or persuade enough centrist GOP lawmakers to call for new witnesses, including Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton. In his final appeal to lawmakers and a divided nation, Schiff argued that a guilty verdict in the Senate is the only remedy left to curb what he called the "'imminent threat" posed to the nation by Trump's unconstitutional impulses.

"He is who he is," Schiff declared. "You know it's not going to stop. ... It's not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it."

The moment of history was apparent, only the third impeachment trial of a U.S. president, as were the partisan views of the Trump presidency and the effort to end it.

When Schiff cited a news story with someone close to Trump saying any Republican voting with Democrats would...