Mark Sumner of Daily Kos discusses a few of the weird (the only kind?) arguments that the nasty guy’s legal team intends to use. With the Senate GOP solid backing of the nasty guy these arguments will only be meaningful as precedent. Some of those arguments:
* Because the US is a superpower and Ukraine is so weak the US president should be able to bully them.
* He can’t be guilty of extortion because Ukraine doesn’t have enough treasure to actually buy him off.
* Because the US is all grown up and a superpower then foreign entanglements just can’t happen. Therefore impeachment doesn’t exist anymore.
* The nasty guy has the authority to deny sending documents to the House. The House doesn’t have enough first-hand evidence to make the case to the Senate.
Rachel Bitecofer tweeted a thread about how many people in the nasty guy administration oversaw investigations into actions in which they were personally involved. That includes Sec. of State Pompeo, Attorney General Bill Barr, and ranking GOP member in the House hearings Devin Nunes. But don’t forget the vice nasty guy presides over the Senate and has guidance into how the Senate conducts the trial.
But wouldn’t the vice nasty guy jump at the chance of booting his boss and grabbing the plum job? Well, he is loyal (which is why he’s lasted so long). And the rest of the GOP is still backing the nasty guy. David Mastio, writing for USA Today, put it this way:
Trump is the only route to clinging to power.
Pence is viewed as weak tea in rallying the base. And after years of Trump, there’s not much hope on the right for reaching out to the middle in the coming presidential election. Blue-collar Democrats aren’t going to defect to Pence’s traditional brand of Republicanism and he can’t really fake populism with Trump’s verve. Without Trump winning at the top of the ticket, hopes for keeping a grip on the Senate are not high.
I don’t care how damaged Trump is by the Senate impeachment trial next week, there’s no hope his Republican backers will abandon him.
With the trial playing out as a cover-up the American people should be outraged! Why aren’t we surrounding the Capitol? Topcat108 tweeted:
We are trapped. Our healthcare is dependent on our jobs and we aren’t free to leave them. Everyone I know wants to take to the streets but feel trapped.
In a separate post Mark Sumner compares what the Republicans and Democrats did on the first day of the trial, the day for setting how the trial will proceed. Republicans had a series of talking points (see above) – and nothing else.
Democrats came prepared. They introduced ten amendments to the rules – requests for documents, requests for particular witnesses (John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney), and such. And for each amendment one of the seven House trial managers spent a good hour laying out the case for what had happened and why that particular witness or document would be necessary. They discussed particular conversations, critical meetings and specific events and explained why that fit their case. Over the ten hours the Democrats laid out their case, spelling out the players and their crimes. And they still have 24 hours to make their case.
After the sixth proposed amendment Moscow Mitch tried to force a delay that would lump the last four amendments into a single quick vote. Chuck Schumer, the Minority Leader, refused. And kept going.
Moscow Mitch and the nasty guy team were unprepared. All they could do was run through their talking points each time and shout insults. Democrats looked like they had practiced for weeks (Speaker Pelosi’s delay in turning over the Articles of Impeachment was put to good use).
Did the Dems win any of these amendment votes? No. But they won the evening and showed the GOP they will do everything they can to make sure the nasty guy’s crimes are broadcast to the public.
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