pretty clear, we’re watching a meticulous recounting of facts be rebutted with incompetence and contempt because one political party is irredeemably corrupted. what would the alternative interpretation be. or was this one of those rhetorical type deals. https://t.co/RU2x0wynUR
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) February 9, 2021
Trump's lawyer just said that if Trump is convicted for doing what he didn't do, he'll do it again, and worse.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) February 9, 2021
Not sure that pointing out that Trump has been doing various impeachment-worthy things throughout his four years in office is making the point you think you're making.
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 9, 2021
Schumer tried to call an emergency session specifically to avoid this issue and was rejected https://t.co/agdoFs22uY
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 9, 2021
Yes, yes, impeach Jimmy Carter for the Iran hostage crisis, yes, make sure he doesn't try to run for president in 2024 at the age of 98.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 9, 2021
I'm honestly impressed none of the senators have started laughing at this word salad.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 9, 2021
Mitch McConnell just voted (again) that the this trial is unconstitutional, which is rich because he’s the one who stopped the trial from beginning while Trump was still president.
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) February 9, 2021
As usual, Trump and his team are relying, quite sensibly, on the fact that their followers and fans are stupid https://t.co/Loc1817Q9Z
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 9, 2021
Knowing there was a bomb and then showing up with a box of matches doesn't seem like a great defense to me. https://t.co/05y7APH9G6
— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) February 8, 2021
Trump team adviser candid on messy opening day for former president's impeachment team. Adviser said Trump could be in serious jeopardy if he finds himself charged in criminal court: “Trump is f*cked if anyone ever charges him. No one wants to work with him.”
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) February 9, 2021
Schoen just showed a video of, I’m pretty sure, 14 Senators & members of Congress talking about impeachment. The members shown were black, Latino, Palestinian, or Jewish. The only non-Hispanic White person who’s not Jewish was a woman.
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 9, 2021
If you were wondering where you'd seen Bruce Castor before https://t.co/0OOLwMebbW
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 9, 2021
shouts to people that were like "is this who we are" in november 2016 when the answer was "oh, buddy, we're far worse, wait until the mob trial-level impeachments. plural."
great stuff
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) February 9, 2021
mrmoshpotato
Via Karoli
Did Joe McCarthy’s ghost show up and call everyone commies too?
CliosFanBoy
@mrmoshpotato: The CCPs leadership model seems to fit the republicans pretty well now. Maybe the person who pulled it out has a copy for his own reference.
EmanG
Calling it a hot mess would be insulting to messes. And to hot.
brendancalling
Why does anyone expect Castor etc to make a substantial argument? We all know the GOP is going to acquit him.
who fucking cares? I’m not even watching. There’s no point in it, other than making myself mad. Instead, I’m gonna pick up some weed and play my upright bass.
Mike in NC
And once again we see that Trump only hires the Best People!
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: No insurrection! No insurrection! You’re the insurrection! SAD!
So – will tomorrow be a bigger shitshow? Place your bets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the rot has spread
He was trying to talk his way out of a censure motion by the Hillsdale County Republicans, which I assume is a) his home district b) the home of Hillsdale College, the academic base for trump’s “1776” report, the would-be refutation of the 1619 project
cain
Well it is a wednesday, and you know our wednesdays this year has been all been history in the making of some sort of another. So hold on to your lily white butts!
NotMax
Based on their votes today, the 44 who are on record that the proceeding is invalid now ought stand by that and not participate nor show up for the final vote, leaving it to 2/3 of those present, right?
//
Gin & Tonic
Wolf Blitzer, ladies and germs: “pretty awful performance by his so-called legal team.”
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think this is the right approach. My Pillow guy aside, businesses don’t want to be associated with seditionists and white supremacists. Hit the GOP where it hurts.
Emma from FL
Well, my decision to avoid this disaster has proven prescient. if not downright visionary.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Whole lotta words expended and water sipped today to say “You’re a big bunch of meanies.”
jonas
So Trump’s defense is phoning in a completely half-assed wordsalad like a middle-schooler who has to report on a book they never read, and moreover, don’t give a shit about? Color me surprised.
You’d think even pro-Trump Republican senators would be *slightly* insulted by the idea that Trump is so sure they’re in his back pocket that he can send this moron up to defend him on impeachment charges, but if they had any shame, they would have resigned and gone independent a long time ago.
p.a.
Sounds like a couple local ambulance chasers could have done a better job repping donnie. But they’d want $$$ up front, so there’s that…
kindness
Apparently it is true. With this Senate Trump could shoot everyone on 5th Ave and they would refuse to convict.
Here’s the funny thing. If Trump isn’t convicted he’s going to come back in 2024 and mess it up for the Republicans. I tell you, Republicans don’t know who is helping them any more. That and the major donors to the Republican party are lunatics and like Trump.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: the Lincoln Project seemed to have been more effective with Tweeters than with voters, but public-facing corporations seem to not like twitter mobs, so maybe the LP folks have found their niche. I hope so
Ken
I’m hoping the Trump team says, “We’re mocking this trial because it doesn’t matter what nonsense we spew, since we all know enough Republican Senators will vote to acquit that it doesn’t matter.”
I mean, it’s there as subtext, might as well make it explicit.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: they (party donors) really are the only thing that the GQP even remotely listens to, anymore…and even then, that’s only the ones with half a brain/half their sanity. The rest would tell their donors to “F off, libs!!!” while swirling down the drain.
VOR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think part of the cognitive dissonance on the MAGAs is their belief they are the good guys and it’s just unpossible anyone on their side would have behaved like that. It has to be a false flag operation. All those guys chanting “fight for Trump” must be ringers, right?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes. Good. And they were smart making all the corporate employees white. Gives them credibility with business execs considering donating to the GOP.
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think a visit by the FBI is appropriate. Denying that there was an attack on your country is a form of sedition.
mrmoshpotato
@jonas: How do you half-ass a word salad?
Peale
@VOR: No one who owns a gun could possibly shoot a room full of children, unless they were paid by Soros to do that.
Peale
@mrmoshpotato: You don’t even bother to shake the bottle of dressing before slathering it on.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Steve Schmidt and David Plouffe were talking about this very thing in last night’s podcast. Schmidt in particular was alluding to some upcoming announcements in this vein.
They talked about big corporations in particular and also sports teams as a way of fighting back against legislatures that make laws saying they can overrule the will of the voters. Mentioned football players who aren’t going to want to play for or have big sporting events in states where they want to throw out the “votes of people who look like them”.
Public pressure.
Also talked about big corporations that could organize voter registration, etc.
I think they are thinking the R party is not wiling to police themselves so these efforts are going to have to come from elsewhere. It gave me hope, actually, that all is not lost
edit: I see Jim, Foolish Literalist got there first.
Jeffro
Minor point but this is something I mentioned to Mrs. Fro a couple weeks ago: the GQP’s only way to ‘thread this needle’ (other than growing a spine, honoring their oaths to the Constitution, and taking their lumps of course) is to just basically alternate between “trumpov’s nuts/incited this/deserves to be punished” and “what? you Dems can’t possibly punish trumpov for this!”.
Back and forth, back and forth, so that they have at least something to point to when they try to deflect criticism from their insane base. “What? I said that the trial was unconstitutional…then I saw the videos of what he said to the crowd…but then I realized he’s out of office…and yet, we can’t just hold him unaccountable…except the mob was probably only going to kill Democrats…” And on and on and on.
Well, half of them might try this approach, anyway. The other half will just flat-out support the orange moron to their dying (pun hopefully intended) breath.
cain
@VOR:
This isn’t some backwater rube. This is the majority leader in Michigan. It might be this is a form of manipulation but it’s kind of hard for that when they probably had friends who went to DC to be part of the insurrection. They can’t really do the conspiracy theory/sandy hook thing.
That shit happened in real time and fully covered in front of a horrified nation.
WaterGirl
@Emma from FL: Avoiding the awful presentations by the T**** attorneys? Definitely. Skipping the video and our two major presenters today? I think not. Watching those was well worth it and I would recommend those to you.
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: “You know we’re all Trump trash, so why put up a defense?”
WaterGirl
@jonas: In their defense, it’s not easy to defend the indefensible.
They did, however, choose to defend T**** in this, so fuck them and their hopefully ruined careers going forward.
PJ
@Jeffro: Most of the Republicans will weasel around their inability to convict Trump, and they know it really doesn’t matter what justification they use, so long as they have some BS to dribble out when called on by journalists or constituents. The important thing is to hit their constituents with clips of the insurrection juxtaposed with their excuses for Trump in ads this year and in the elections in 2022 and 2024.
Jeffro
@PJ: agreed.
“Hypocrites, the lot of them…and none more so than Senator So-and-So…”
The GQP is definitely living from moment to moment, and not really thinking that much much more is going to come out about trumpov & Co across the next 2 & 4 years. Oh well, sucks to be them!
Jeffro
@cain: yup.
many GQP state parties are certifiably insane, and so are their members in Congress. They didn’t get there by backing away from the Qrazy…they are the true believers.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: It’s history and I want to see it, so I’m watching replays
Eta: Actually, I’m watching Hal Sparks watch it, because he just rips the sh*t out of their guy.
Baud
MSNBC bleeping. C’mon.
df
Trump’s lawyers could open with: “Trump did it, fuck you” and the GQP would still acquit him, so.
divF
@Baud: But think of the children!
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I did not get a chance to watch any of the proceedings today, but I do not understand the “out of office” stuff.
Congress has the right to prohibit Trump from holding any office in the future.
The Constitution does not say that a president can escape judgement by running out the clock on his term.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
Isn’t our side the prosecutor?
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: yup…I eff’d up, to late to edit, sorry. =-(
OH! Yay, slipped in under the wire.
citizen dave
@WaterGirl: I’m happy that the corporate world might be agents for change to help our nation get shit done. Another area this is happening is the environment/energy policy (corps. committing to 100 renewables, etc.)
Jeffro
@Brachiator:
Me either, yes, and yes. I was just repeating trumpov’s lawyers’ BS arguments. ‘Pounding the table’, as it were, since they don’t have the facts or the law on their side.
dmsilev
At least take comfort in a a bit of schadenfreude.
Baud
@dmsilev:
“Send in Rudy!”
Leto
@dmsilev: Found a good summation of Trumpov’s defense.
artem1s
@Brachiator:
it only makes sense if you are 45. He’s only got one way to
raisegrift lots of money off his cult. He can’t do that if he can’t run for office. No campaign, no donations. And the lawyers know the money dries up if he can’t campaign. sooner or later the cult will move on and start sending money to the next crazy conspiracy nutcase.I’m betting if he’s barred for running for office, he may start a religion. easier and less likely he’ll end up in jail for misuse of funds.
japa21
@Brachiator: I liken it to saying, “Sure I was indicted two days before the statute of limitations ran out, but you can’t try me now because the statute of limitations has run out.”
JMG
Didn’t see impeachment today. Homeowner issues. The boiler control for our heating (we have forced hot water) and hot water has gone haywire, shutting itself down. Local plumbing and heating company who installed it, real nice folks have been by and advised us to shut it off, wait a few minutes and restart. This worked well for about a week. Then when it failed and reset, it failed in three days. By the Super Bowl, it was twice a day. Today the manufacturer’s rep came with the two guys from the plumbing company. They worked on it for four hours. Acknowledged it would need a new heat exchanger. Left. Control began shutting itself down every 15 minutes. Long story and several visits later, tomorrow they’re all coming to replace the whole installation — Under warranty! In the meantime, I’m wearing a flannel shirt, wool socks (Cole would be proud) and my Irish fisherman’s sweater.
So I missed the show. Apparently Trump’s lawyers didn’t even do as well as Hamilton Burger. Or so Twitter informs me.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Stupid. they are cable for god’s sake.
WaterGirl
Speaking of David Plouffe, he calls the crazy attention whore “QAnon Marjorie”. I am going to shorten that to QAnon Marge. No need to help this despicable person put on airs with her 3 names.
Baud
OT
Leto
@japa21: Nixon’s adage holds true: when a president does it, it’s not illegal! They just need to say that and move on.
dmsilev
@Baud: Ted Cruz would also be an option. Sure, he’s technically a juror, but if we tell the other Senators that this would allow Pat Leahy to bash Ted’s skull in with his gavel I’m sure they’d all be in favor.
Baud
Baud
Leto
@Baud: “Listen, we’re going to acquit you but you gotta give us better cover! We’re dying here!”
Gravenstone
@df: That’s their closing argument.
danielx
Family size bag of salted dicks for Trump defense team’s dinner.
topclimber
@Baud: Same article notes that Cassidy (R-La) changed his vote about constitutionality of trying Trump from last week. It’s only one vote, but maybe a sign of more to come when judgment day arrives?
Gravenstone
@Leto: pretty much
What, you’re going to make us work to cover Trump’s ass again?
Baud
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Gotta admit, I didn’t have “T**** lawyers Foghorn Leghorn their way through the presentation” on my Impeachment Part Deux bingo card, but here we are…
Steve in the ATL
@mrmoshpotato:
Iceberg wedge with bleu cheese
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
You should be impeached for that.
df
@Gravenstone: I’d rather have the honesty at this point, ya know?
I wonder what would happen if the House impeachment managers asked if it would be okay for Biden to do a bunch of impeachable things a few months before he left office. You know, since you apparently can’t convict someone once they aren’t president anymore.
O. Felix Culpa
Over at Wonkette, Evan Hurst did a live blog. Below are excerpts from his commentary on Castor, which made me LOL:
3:10: We feel like we are 100,000 minutes into this and have not heard Castor once rebut anything the House managers said. Right now telling the senators they’re “extraordinary.” Maybe next he will tell them they are super thanks for asking.
3:12: Castor now saying senators are patriots, senators have nice hair, senators help old ladies cross the street, senators rescue kittens from the tops of trees, senators always go down …
Still hasn’t even attempted to make a point.
3:19: Oh my god, this man uses so many extra words, it’s amaaaaaaaaaaazing. Saying something about Athens and Rome and Federalist Papers and Constitution and still hasn’t made a point.
This presentation could have been an email.
3:26: Castor says none of the Capitol terrorists have been charged with conspiracy with Donald Trump as their co-conspirator, therefore in summary and in conclusion, QED, let’s finish this thing where we started, but do statements ever really END, to be or not to be that is the question, it was the best of times it was the worst of times, I can say the alphabet look “A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y AND Z,” I can say the alphabet backward look “Z Y X W V U T S R Q P O N M L K J I H G F E D C B A” I can say the whole Bible look I can say the whole Bible upside down look and now I will do the whole Bible in Latin now I will do the whole Bible in American Sign Language, which I have never studied, and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.
3:47: LOL pretty sure Castor just admitted they changed their whole response — you know the longass whatthefuckologue he is supposedly finishing right now — because the Democrats did such a good job. He says another one of Trump’s idiots is going to talk next. You know, if he ever finds his way out of this sentence.
3:50: This fuckdick is literally trying to read us the part of the Constitution about impeachment, as if the Democrats didn’t read us THE WHOLE SENTENCE earlier. Moron finally finds one goddamned thing to truncate, and it’s that.
Next moron talking, it can’t be possibly worse than what we just endured, though David Schoen was Roger Stone’s lawyer and Roger Stone was convicted on all counts, so … HOLD MY BEER?
PPCLI
@Baud: Send in Gaetz!!!
RSA
@p.a.:
What a coincidence…
Brachiator
@O. Felix Culpa:
Loved the inclusion of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from “Ulysses.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Brachiator: Me too.
ETA: I don’t know if you’ve had the “opportunity” to listen to Castor’s whatthefuckalogue, but it was the most astonishing stream of consciousness cornpone and blather I’ve ever heard. Others have likened it to the desperation of a fourth-grader giving an oral book report on a book he hasn’t read.
Delk
Got to be a castor oil and shit spewing joke in there somewhere.
scav
I’m distinctly getting the impression that the lawyer stuck behind a cat filter had a better and overall more professional day.
Amir Khalid
If this impeachment trial were an actual criminal trial, with only impartial jurors, Trump’s goose would already be cooked. Its outcome hangs in the balance only because half the jurors are either on Trump’s side or afraid of their voters who are.
It’s a pity that Senate impeachment trials cannot bemoved to another venue where more impartial jurors can be found.
O. Felix Culpa
@scav: You would be right.
Baud
@scav:
He never waivered from his argument that he was not a cat. Clear, concise, consistent.
Brachiator
@artem1s:
I’m betting if he’s barred for running for office, he may start a religion.
But democracy is on the line. If Trump is not convicted and barred from future office, the attack on the capital becomes a rehearsal for a future potential autocrat.
Baud
@scav:
He never waivered from his argument that he was not a cat. Clear, concise, consistent.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud: But did he wave Meow’s little red book?
Baud
Chris Hayes not bleeping the video. Playing the whole thing.
geg6
@O. Felix Culpa:
THIS.
OMG, that killed a few too many of my brain cells. IANAL, but I took some law classes as an undergrad because I thought I was going to law school before I changed my mind. I think I could have presented a better argument more coherently. Or just an actual argument even.
japa21
Quick question for the lawyers in attendance. One thing I have been somewhat concerned about is the impact all this may have on any actual legal consequence for Trump. We know the DC DA is looking at possibly filing criminal charges. To what degree would all this hoopla allow Trump lawyers to argue (and win) that he could not get a fair hearing by a jury?
Again, I am about as far from being a lawyer as is possible, so please don’t just tell me this is a stupid question.
J R in WV
@Leto:
NO, dude, you did not. There cannot be a “good summation” of Trump’s defense, because his behavior was indefensible!!
Perhaps you were tongue in cheek? A summary that laid clear the stupidity of Trump’s defense? I’ll click and see, you are pretty reliable!
ETA: OK, you DID find a good summary of Trump’s defense, My apologies!! My second thought was right on!!! Sorry for my knee jerk first response!!!
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am a cat and I am live.
Jeffro
I wonder if trumpov fires them mid-week, calls for a mistrial?
Also, who cares? This trial is making the GQP’s complicity in trumpov’s corruption crystal-clear. Mission (mostly) accomplished. =)
dmsilev
@scav: Castor would have given a better impression if he had Zoomed in to the Senate and used a cat filter.
mali muso
@scav: I’m not sure if it’s a reaction from all of the stress of 2020 but that “I am not a cat” thing made me laugh uncontrollably until my sides hurt.
Wyatt Salamanca
@jonas:
Trump’s lawyers need remedial lessons in word salad from the master of the form Sarah Palin.
Suzanne
@geg6:
Anyone who got a passing grade on a five-paragraph essay can present a better argument more coherently, I think.
dmsilev
@Jeffro:
Democrats have been careful not to say so explicitly, but it’s clear that getting the Rs to go on the record defending T**** is one of their main goals here. And no matter how much the Rs carp about made-up constitutional issues, a vote to acquit will be seen by most as a vote to defend T****.
Perhaps not coincidentally, four R Senators have already announced that rather than run for reelection in 2022, they will retire.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Wyatt Salamanca: Don’t you need to in front of a turkey rendering machine for that?
WaterGirl
@mali muso: I didn’t laugh uncontrollably, but I have watched it 4 times.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I have watched that a thousand times. I love the way the judge talks to him as if he’s a little defenseless animal and not a grown-ass lawyer.
Wyatt Salamanca
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That moment was absolutely priceless.
randy khan
I just had a chance to watch the video. It’s just stunning – there’s simply no question about what they were intending to do, and it’s also clear that they entered the building despite barriers, despite locked doors, despite Capitol Police trying to bar their way. And if I’d been there, I would have been terrified.
But the moment when the crowd in the hallway was chanting “Treason” was kind of funny in a twisted sort of way.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
It is on many levels a perfect video for the times.
Mary G
These lawyers are famous for representing Bill Cosby – currently serving a long prison sentence – and Jeffrey Epstein – died in jail.
So their poor performance may have been foreseeable. I’m glad the shitty president could only get shitty help.
LurkerNoLonger
Turnip can only find lawyers to represent him who are as stupid as he is and who get off on being humiliated. I’m so glad we voted this low-life out.
Baud
My prediction is that 80% of the Today Show tomorrow morning will be dedicated to the cat video.
df
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, like a parallel universe where America hasn’t entirely lost it.
MisterForkbeard
@Baud: “Trump’s first terrible lawyer did a terrible job. His second terrible lawyer used terrible arguments and lied constantly, but he had arguments and therefore we’ve voted that it was unconstitutional.”
Seriously, these people are terrible. They’re already admitting that they don’t care about any of the facts involved, they just want to get Trump off.
And yes, that phrasing is intentional.
Jay
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2021/01/29/the-qanon-timeline/
Martin
I have to believe that there’s going to be evidence that ties Trump more directly to the planning of the event and the militias. As well as that Jan 4 memo.
Baud
@Martin:
I wouldn’t count on it, but who knows?
guachi
Kind of amazing that cat-filter lawyer didn’t have the most embarrassing day of lawyering.
Alien Radio
if the defence manages to keep up their quota on non sequiturs we could be discussing why a wookie is living on Endor tomorrow.
Kent
There is actually nothing stopping the DOJ from indicting him for insurrection in the US District Court for the District of Columbia and putting him on trial in front of a jury of Washington DC-area jurors.
If they go down that road I expect it will take years and years due to all the delays and appeals up and down to SCOTUS for every little issue. It would be my choice of how to deal with Trump. And an ordinary conviction for insurrection would ban him from future office just was well as impeachment. But I half suspect we would end up with the Pinochet precedent where he finally dies under house arrest 10 years later without actually having served time.
patrick II
Why hasn’t Alex Jones been arrested yet?
J R in WV
@japa21:
I too am not a lawyer, not at all. Ex-software guy here, but I worked with lawyers, have been on juries and been educated as to responsibilities of jurors.
This is not a trial, and these are not jurors, they are Senators, who in large part do not feel any responsibility to be honest, fair, impartial hearers of evidence and finders of truth.
So whatever happens here in the Senate won’t be admissible in court, so far as I can tell. It isn’t a legal proceeding at all — it’s a political event far more than a legal proceeding. I’m sure lawyers will contribute to this discussion, though.
RandomMonster
Trump knows he has the minimum to avoid conviction, so he’s paying the least amount for any idiot to defend him. If it makes for a mockery of the whole proceeding, even better.
Convince me I’m wrong!
WaterGirl
I was horrified at the story Rep. Raskin told. I knew that officers had been beaten with flag poles, but stabbed with them? That’s horrifying. Do we know if the officer survived?
J R in WV
@patrick II:
Why INDEED has Alex Jones NOT been arrested yet???
For inciting insurrection, fomenting violent riot, etc, etc. Held in DC city jail for trial. etc. etc.
schrodingers_cat
I love this, channels the despair of a hopeless situation. Kinda how feel about India in the near term.
Jo bheji thi dua (The prayers that were sent clashed against the skies and have come back forever..
ETA: BJP is playing all this havoc because it got a monster majority in the Lower House of the parliament with 37% of the vote (low 40% with coalition members). We are lucky to have the Dems.
cain
@O. Felix Culpa:
Imani had a real good one too.. hilarious as usual. :)
Amir Khalid
@Kent:
If Trump is ever charged in a criminal court, and he definitely should be regardless of the Senate trial’s outcome, I’d want to see the DoJ go all in on the prosecution and seek the maximum penalty.
Kent
@Amir Khalid: Sure, so would I. It is a politically fraught prosecution though. Would have to be the initiative of some local Assistant Regional AG with really big cojones. Not something that Biden or top administration officials could have their fingerprints on.
The other way to go would be very intensive House or Senate hearings and inquiry with the results referred to the DOJ if charges are warranted.
Bill Arnold
@dmsilev:
A vote to acquit will be a vote to defend incitement of a cop-killing, cop-beating mob.
The incitement was not just the pre-insurrection rally; it was also the efforts to overturn the election the months prior, including deliberate mass propagation of disinformation that convinced 10s of millions of Americans that the election had been rigged by Democrats. (And a lot of disinformation prep-work was done prior to the election, seeding unfounded concerns about voter fraud in the Trump follower-base.)
There was absolutely no excuse post the Dec 14 electoral college vote.
HalfAssedHomesteader
I have to believe the poor argumentation from the Trump team was deliberate so that the Republicans could vote against the trial to make it clear “we don’t give a fuck about principles; it’s power that matters and we aim to get it at any cost.”
Brachiator
@J R in WV:
The Founders may have thought that jurors might not be honest, fair and impartial. Maybe over-awed by a president.
And impeachment seeks to possibly reset the government itself. It is an inherently political process, and not in a negative sense.
The Founders did not fully anticipate that Senators and members of Congress could be a pack of weasels.
Jay
Thread.
Jay
@Bill Arnold:
yup.
Sure Lurkalot
Day started with my mild mannered not political junkie spouse having to turn off MSNBC because Chuck Todd. I had to modify a clusterfuck of an Excel workbook of my own creation so I listened…to as much as I could and watched a bit at lunch. The opening video is horrific and damning and my hope is the same as many of yours…that a nonzero number of Americans who didn’t know or didn’t want to know now know that high crimes and misdemeanors were committed by the former president. I guess I set my expectations pretty low.
Mary G
The last I saw the FBI is still trying to identify a suspect from the insurrection that they allege gouged out the eye of a Capitol Police officer.
Link
Sorry for the naked link; my PC is borked. and I can’t embed on my phone.Jay
@Brachiator:
Qeasels,
you shouldn’t malign Mustelidae.
O. Felix Culpa
@cain: Do you have a link? I don’t twit, but I love ABL.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: The link fairy was here.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Never mind. I found it. And yes, funny.
mrmoshpotato
OT – Pinky Line.
“I think so, Brain, but if we covered the world in salad dressing wouldn’t the aspargus feel left out?”
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa:
GO TO YOUR ROOM!