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‘This Works Better If I Ask The Question’: Chris Wallace Scolds Alan Dershowitz

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace had to rein in Harvard professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz during a segment of his show Sunday morning.

Wallace, who was broadcasting live from Iowa ahead of the Democratic caucuses, spoke with Dershowitz about President Donald Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate. (RELATED: ‘We Just Saw The Pictures’: Chris Wallace Challenges Hakeem Jeffries’ Claim That Souvenir Pen Ceremony Was ‘Solemn’)

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Wallace wrapped up the segment with a question about Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and the 2018 tape that recently surfaced.

“A tape has just been discovered which appears to show a Giuliani associate having a conversation with President Trump back in 2018 about then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. Let’s listen to this exchange,” Wallace prompted before playing the tape.

“Perfect example of what is not impeachable conduct,” Dershowitz responded as the tape ended.

“Let me just ask you —” Wallace interrupted. “This works better if I ask the question and you answer it, professor, which is given the fact that President Trump says he doesn’t know him, and you can see what appears to be a discussion back and forth … How damaging do you think that tape is?”

Dershowitz, who is scheduled to speak before the Senate Monday on the president’s behalf, attempted to stay in his lane. “I only want to speak to what’s an impeachable offense,” he said. “We are not talking the political damage, that’s exactly what voters ought to be deciding on.”

Dershowitz continued to argue that the election should be the referendum on President Trump and the people should be the ones to decide whether he stays in office.

“Voters can take into account that tape, you acknowledge that it’s not an impeachable offense and I would say that much of what was presented by the Democrats were not impeachable offenses, they were campaign ads designed to try to show that you should vote for a different candidate,” Dershowitz concluded. “That’s fine. Let’s put it up to the voters, let’s not destroy our heritage of our Constitution by expanding the criteria for impeachment beyond that which the framers accepted.”