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Trump impeachment
Alana Wise, NPR

Trump in a 'great' mood watching the impeachment trial, adviser says

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Outgoing President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One to leave the White House on Jan 20. Trump is now in Florida, observing his second impeachment trial from afar.
Outgoing President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One to leave the White House on Jan 20. Trump is now in Florida, observing his second impeachment trial from afar.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

A senior adviser to Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the former president was confident in his legal team's representation of him in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, despite Trump's displeasure with their performance the day before, and criticism of his camp's legal arguments and presentation from several Republican senators.

Speaking on Fox News, Jason Miller said the former president was in a "great" mood watching his team's defense, though Miller admitted that there were things that Trump's attorneys could "tighten up" going forward.

"The president thinks that David Schoen did a very excellent job [on Tuesday], also there are some good points that Bruce Castor made. There's a few things that we need to tighten up," Miller said.

Trump's lawyers' opening remarks refuting the constitutionality of the trial — specifically comments made by Castor — were dismissed by many onlookers as unserious and largely unrelated to the matter at hand.

The rambling, long-winded nature of Castor's speech appeared all the more glaring as it followed a clear, impassioned speech from House impeachment managers, who outlined their firsthand experiences during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and laid out constitutionally grounded arguments as to why the trial should proceed.

But, Miller countered on Wednesday, "The fact of the matter is the Democrats really haven't presented a strong case."

He added: "At this point, now it's going into recycled clips, recycled arguments, with even less compelling speakers. I mean Eric Swalwell? He's not going to bring it home for the Democrats. I mean, really now they're getting down to the B-team, and I think tomorrow will probably be the C-team. This is all easily rebutted. We look forward to putting on our case."

Miller also accused the House impeachment managers of using selectively edited video clips, and of hypocrisy, since some of them have used words like "fight" to advance Democratic causes.

A Senate conviction of Trump, which would require 17 Republican votes, is considered highly unlikely.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.