Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) came under fire for comments he made during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, in which he discarded the Fifth Amendment and confessed his mindset that he thinks President Donald Trump is guilty until proven innocent.

Swalwell’s remarks on Tuesday hinged on the fact that the White House opted not to play the House Democrats’ impeachment game.

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It refused to send documents and witnesses to mount a defense against the televised circus.

“We can only conclude that you’re guilty,” the California lawmaker stated.

“In America, innocent men do not hide and conceal evidence,” Swalwell added.

“They are forthcoming and they want to cooperate and the president is acting like a very guilty person right now.”

That’s not how this works, Congressman.

That’s not how any of this works.

Backlash. Response to Eric Swalwell’s anti-constitutional conclusion was swift.

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The Fifth Amendment enshrines the concept that someone is “innocent until proven guilty.”

The clause regarding self-incrimination was designed to prevent the accused from being forced to testify against themselves, leaving the burden of proving that a person has committed a crime to the government.

Ben Williamson, communications director for Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), wrote on social media, “I believe the Fifth Amendment was just repealed on live television.”

Earlier, Swalwell used an analogy involving drug testing in baseball to make the same point.

“Odd thing about the U.S., you’re innocent until proven guilty,” one critic wrote. “Not his responsibility to prove he’s innocent, your responsibility to prove he’s guilty. Obviously you missed school that day!”

Eric Swalwell may have missed many school days throughout his education, in our opinion.

One thing Eric Swalwell has been guilty of himself throughout this process is perpetual lying, in our view.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Swalwell was repeatedly telling everyone who would listen to him that nothing in the Steele dossier has been disproven — something he got called out on but didn’t seem to care.

It’s not surprising that Swalwell’s arguments have all the intellectual heft of his colleague and intellectual superior, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

She, too, believes President Trump is guilty until proven innocent.

“The president has committed crimes in public. This is something that we know. This is something that all people know,” AOC said without evidence.

She added that the Ukraine hoax that compelled Democrats to move toward the impeachment of Trump is “a very open-and-shut case.”

She said that in October.

Swalwell’s comments have, perhaps inadvertently, revealed that the entire Democrat Party is operating under the assumption that the president is guilty.

And they’ve been convinced of that from day one.

This piece originally appeared on ThePoliticalInsider.com and is used by permission.

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Trump Takes Bite Out of Impeachment by Mocking Pelosi’s Teeth
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