The
House Managers' presentation of the second impeachment of Donald J.
Trump was utterly meticulous. It made me proud to be a Democrat and be
aligned with a party that has an abundance of academic excellence. As
you can see from the summary in Politico below Jaime Raskin, et al
prepared for weeks and it showed. All of their renditions were
magnificent as they left most in stunned silence at the description of
the extremist rightwing seditious and murderous attack on the Capitol.
It was a total implication of Trump and his instigation of it.
Republicans will be hard pressed to acquit Trump and yet a gambler's
assessment would probably predict that Republicans knowing they are
complicit by supporting Trump no matter his egregious lawlessness will,
in fact, acquit the most immoral beast. Republicans are without shame
in supporting Trump's treason and his four long year attempt at the
overthrow of Democracy and the rule of law. Trump would have failed a
long time ago without Republican support and without Trump I think I can
safely say the attack on the Capitol never would have taken place.
It
is a divine miracle that more than 5 were not killed that day in the
Capitol on January 6 and another miracle that there were not more than
140 injured. If not for the Capitol Police a slaughter surely would have taken place.
Yes,
I am praying for a third miracle that Trump be in an exclusive
historical club by being the only impeached president who was found
guilty and never allowed to attain high office in our nation again. Let
this be the beginning of the cleaning of our house of Trump's
malevolence purging it and us of its squalid lethal impact on our
nation. Our nation by acquitting Trump in the first impeachment stepped
up to the water's edge of authoritarian rule but, perhaps, prayerfully
now, will not dive in. So let it be written!
POLITICO Playbook: Trump is furious, and McConnell might vote to convict
1) House impeachment managers nailed it. They prepared for weeks for the moment — and it showed. Rep. JAMIE RASKIN’S (D-Md.) emotional appeal to the senators — he told the story of burying his 25-year-old son one day and being petrified the next that the mob would kill his daughter and son-in-law in the Capitol with him — left the chamber in stunned silence. And Rep. JOE NEGUSE (D-Colo.) shredded the Trump argument that a post-presidency trial is unconstitutional, invoking big-name Republican voices to make his point.
2) Trump’s attorneys blew it. There’s a reason “My Cousin Vinny” started trending on Twitter when Trump’s lawyers took the floor. The meandering presentation by BRUCE CASTOR barely made sense: One minute he was complimenting senators, the next talking about getting lost in the halls of Congress. Then there was that weird digression about the phrases “floodgates will open” versus “release the whirlwind,” which one senior GOP aide described as “the long extended riff to nowhere.” And what was with the rambling about “smart jurists in Nebraska”?
“I ain’t no lawyer but I know enough to know that was some bad stuff,” Sen. RICHARD BURR (R-N.C.) told fellow Republicans in the cloakroom immediately afterward, per another senior GOP aide.
DAVID SCHOEN was marginally better. But his harsh tone — he accused the Democratic managers of being “fueled by … hatred” of the Republican base after Raskin nearly broke down crying — did not go over well.
3) Trump is pissed. Down at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was yelling at the TV as he watched the proceedings, per Tara. Maggie Haberman adds, “On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the angriest, Mr. Trump ‘was an eight' ...
The mood was similarly sour in the broader Trump universe. Mid-defense, Newsmax cut away from Castor to go to Alan Dershowitz , one of Trump’s attorneys during the first impeachment. “I have no idea what he’s doing,” Dershowitz said of Castor. “I just don’t understand it.” (Dershowitz also bragged that he taught Raskin at Harvard Law.)
4) It just doesn’t matter. Senate Republicans looking to justify an acquittal vote were hoping for a little cover from Trump’s team. So far, they haven’t gotten it — and in fact were highly critical of the defense. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), Trump’s top ally in the upper chamber, admitted he didn’t know where Castor was going in his presentation. Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) said both Trump lawyers were bad and called Raskin “impressive.” Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), a close ally of McConnell and former judge, complained Trump’s team “just rambled on and on and on … It was not one of the finest [legal performances] I’ve seen.”
In the end, though, only one Senate Republican changed his vote on whether it was constitutional to impeach a former president — Louisiana’s BILL CASSIDY.
5) Cassidy’s got stones. It’s not easy for any Republican to cross Trump, let alone one from a deep-red Southern state. Cassidy shocked the chamber — and his constituents — when he did just that, joining five other Senate Republicans to say the proceedings were in fact constitutional. Cassidy took the opposite position in a late January vote, and Republicans are already rebuking him in his home state.
Here’s how Cassidy explained his vote: “The House managers were focused, they were organized … they made a compelling argument. President Trump’s team, they were disorganized. … One side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job. … As an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did the good job.”
6) This thing is over. If the compelling presentations of the managers — and shoddy work by Trump’s – weren’t enough to move the GOP senators Tuesday, it’s not going to happen.
SPOTTED AT THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) shaking his head during a montage in which Trump told the rioters, “We love you.” … Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) not listening in the cloakroom. … Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.), the only senator who refused to wear a mask, doodling on a pad of paper during the manager presentations. … Rep. AL GREEN (D-Texas), who infuriated his own party by forcing votes to impeach Trump in 2017 and 2018, sitting in the gallery and taking it all in. … Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) holding her hand over her heart for several minutes after Raskin’s presentation. (h/t the Hill pool) … MARK MEADOWS with a security detail.
