A majority of Americans want to see POOTWH impeached. It needs to happen and the repubs need to grow a set and follow through, third party and primary challenges be damned. Lindsey Flimsy Flip Flop Faloozy's, Crud's, Randy's and Rube's explanations to the contrary are ridiculous. Get them on record for defending that POS. Again.
POOTWH? Say what? Is that like pooty?
I'm still proud of SCROTUMS (So-Called Ruler Of The United (Mostly) States)
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
So let's assume the long shot happens and the Senate votes to impeach Trump and he is not able to run for POTUS again. We still may very well have Donald Jr. to contend with, correct?
Yeah of course. I don’t see him running but who knows. I guess we will see in two years.
So let's assume the long shot happens and the Senate votes to impeach Trump and he is not able to run for POTUS again. We still may very well have Donald Jr. to contend with, correct?
Yeah of course. I don’t see him running but who knows. I guess we will see in two years.
if he's knee deep in litigation, we'll never hear from them again.
So let's assume the long shot happens and the Senate votes to impeach Trump and he is not able to run for POTUS again. We still may very well have Donald Jr. to contend with, correct?
Yeah of course. I don’t see him running but who knows. I guess we will see in two years.
if he's knee deep in litigation, we'll never hear from them again.
If we are talking about running for president, then litigation would not stop trump or junior as even felons are welcome to become president of the US. But please don’t let them vote in Florida
So let's assume the long shot happens and the Senate votes to impeach Trump and he is not able to run for POTUS again. We still may very well have Donald Jr. to contend with, correct?
Yeah of course. I don’t see him running but who knows. I guess we will see in two years.
if he's knee deep in litigation, we'll never hear from them again.
If we are talking about running for president, then litigation would not stop trump or junior as even felons are welcome to become president of the US. But please don’t let them vote in Florida
but they'd also be drained for cash. and didn't they have a tough time coming anywhere near Biden's numbers in fundraising? it's almost impossible to tell how it will be in 2 or 4 years. that's a lifetime nowadays.
A majority of Americans want to see POOTWH impeached. It needs to happen and the repubs need to grow a set and follow through, third party and primary challenges be damned. Lindsey Flimsy Flip Flop Faloozy's, Crud's, Randy's and Rube's explanations to the contrary are ridiculous. Get them on record for defending that POS. Again.
POOTWH? Say what? Is that like pooty?
I'm still proud of SCROTUMS (So-Called Ruler Of The United (Mostly) States)
Ha! Perfect!
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. I’m Maggie Astor, a politics reporter who will be taking over from Noah Weiland this time around.
What happened today
• At about 7 p.m., the House of Representatives delivered its article of impeachment against Donald J. Trump to the Senate, charging him with incitement of insurrection. This is a ceremonial and highly choreographed procedure in which the House impeachment managers physically carry the document across the Capitol.
• After walking the article through the halls that a mob ransacked just weeks ago, the lead impeachment manager — Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland — read it on the Senate floor. The article is four pages long, and reading it took about five minutes.
• The article states that when Mr. Trump addressed his supporters on Jan. 6, he “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.”
• It also notes his previous efforts to subvert the election results and says his actions “threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.”
• Officials confirmed that Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, would preside over the trial in his role as president pro tempore of the Senate. Normally, the chief justice of the United States presides over such trials, but the fact that Mr. Trump is no longer in office creates some wiggle room.
The last two weeks
If you’re finding it hard to believe it has been only 12 days since the House voted to impeach Mr. Trump, we can’t blame you. A lot has happened since then.
The biggest thing that happened, of course, is that President Biden was inaugurated, lessening the practical implications of the impeachment trial. But the trial is still highly significant — both as a public signal of how much Republicans are willing to tolerate from a leader of their party, and because if the Senate were to convict Mr. Trump, it could vote to bar him from running again.
Many Republican senators have argued that Mr. Trump’s departure makes impeachment a pointlessly divisive exercise, and if he is ultimately acquitted, it may be for that reason: The timing allows Republicans to take issue with procedure, rather than defending Mr. Trump’s actions.
Senators Chuck Schumer of New York and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Democratic and Republican leaders, reached an agreement last week to delay the trial for two weeks, to allow time both for Mr. Trump’s lawyers to prepare their defense and for the Senate to work on confirming more of Mr. Biden’s cabinet nominees.
What happens next
Impeachment is now officially in the Senate’s hands, but the trial won’t start until Feb. 9. We talked to Nicholas Fandos, one of The Times’s congressional reporters, about what’s in store.
What happens in the two weeks before the trial starts?
On Tuesday, the Senate will convene as a court of impeachment for the first time so that senators can take an oath to administer “impartial justice” and issue a summons to Mr. Trump to answer the charge against him. But after that, the trial will essentially be put on pause until Feb. 9 to allow the prosecution and defense to draw up and submit a series of written briefs laying out their arguments. In the meantime, the Senate will go on working on confirmation of nominees to President Biden’s cabinet.
Once the trial starts, can we expect it to run similarly to the last impeachment trial?
We expect the substantive part of the trial to look roughly similar to the one last year, just on fast-forward. Each side will get to present its case, senators will have time to question them, and the chamber will vote on whether to call for additional witness testimony. That should all take place in just three or four days.
If senators do want to hear from witnesses, that could increase the length of the trial by weeks. But if not, there could be a vote to convict or acquit Mr. Trump by the end of the week of Feb. 8.
Are there open questions that you hope will be answered in the next two weeks?
The two biggest questions right now are where Republicans will land on Mr. Trump’s guilt and whether they will want to hear from additional witnesses. Conceivably, any senators could announce their positions on those issues in the next two weeks, but my guess is that they will bite their tongue, bide their time and wait until February to make those calls.
What else we’re reading
• Two weeks before the impeachment trial begins, the Senate’s divisions are already hardening. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who cast the only Republican vote to convict Mr. Trump the first time he was impeached, seems prepared to do so again, while many other Republicans are bashing the decision to hold a trial at all.
• Representative Eric Swalwell of California, one of the House impeachment managers, appeared on MSNBC to argue for the constitutionality of holding a Senate trial against someone who is no longer president. He cited the 1876 impeachment trial of William Belknap, which was held after he had resigned as war secretary.
why would it be unconstitutional for a president to be tried by the senate after leaving office? if an accused dies during trial, they most times DON'T finish the trial, but they are legally allowed to.
if it is the only way to bar someone from holding public office again, then it's for sure constitutional in my eyes.
why would it be unconstitutional for a president to be tried by the senate after leaving office? if an accused dies during trial, they most times DON'T finish the trial, but they are legally allowed to.
if it is the only way to bar someone from holding public office again, then it's for sure constitutional in my eyes.
Remember when Trump could not be brought to justice because he was president? Now he cannot be brought to justice because he's not president.
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
why would it be unconstitutional for a president to be tried by the senate after leaving office? if an accused dies during trial, they most times DON'T finish the trial, but they are legally allowed to.
if it is the only way to bar someone from holding public office again, then it's for sure constitutional in my eyes.
because rules and logic don't matter to the republicans. they are just so far gone as a Party at this point.
why would it be unconstitutional for a president to be tried by the senate after leaving office? if an accused dies during trial, they most times DON'T finish the trial, but they are legally allowed to.
if it is the only way to bar someone from holding public office again, then it's for sure constitutional in my eyes.
Remember when Trump could not be brought to justice because he was president? Now he cannot be brought to justice because he's not president.
Just a bullshit way of avoiding talking about the impeachable act he committed while president. Political weaklings. All of them.
Hopefully the 5 who voted with the dems today also vote to convict.
even if he is not convicted, the dems have enough video evidence of him inciting insurrection. they will have enough video evidence of gop senators defending him that they can run campaign ads against them literally til the end of time.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
even if he is not convicted, the dems have enough video evidence of him inciting insurrection. they will have enough video evidence of gop senators defending him that they can run campaign ads against them literally til the end of time.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
12:31 p.m. Pelosi says Trump impeachment trial ‘will honor the Constitution by establishing justice’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday defended Democrats’ efforts to move forward with a Senate impeachment trial of Trump, declaring that they are doing so in an effort to defend the Constitution and maintaining that “there is no opportunity cost” in doing so. “Peace is not just the absence of dissension; it is the presence of justice,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. “So we will honor the Constitution by establishing justice.” Pelosi argued that if Democrats were to refrain from holding a trial, “we might as well remove any penalty from the Constitution of impeachment; just take it out.” But America’s founders, she said, were fearful of two things — “a demagogue and a mob” — and that’s “exactly what descended” on Jan. 6. The speaker also took a jab at the brief filed this week by Trump’s defense team, which misspelled “the United States,” among other words. The Democratic impeachment managers, Pelosi said, “have been very, shall we say, silent, hard-working, brilliant in terms of what we saw in the brief, not only wise, but — you might appreciate, well-written — and no spelling mistakes of ‘the United States.’” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in his floor remarks Thursday that the Senate “will move forward with a fair and speedy trial.” “The House managers will present their case,” Schumer said. “The former president’s counsel will mount a defense, and senators will have to look deep into their consciences and determine if Donald Trump is guilty, and if so, ever qualified again to enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” By Felicia Sonmez
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
House Impeachment Managers want trump to testify under oath in Senate trial.
CSPAN is going PPV for that!
They can be financially set for decades!
1995 Milwaukee 1998 Alpine, Alpine 2003 Albany, Boston, Boston, Boston 2004 Boston, Boston 2006 Hartford, St. Paul (Petty), St. Paul (Petty) 2011 Alpine, Alpine 2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
Yes, I didn't think he would either but the bases are being covered; he can't ever claim he wasn't given a chance to speak in his own defense.
Did POOTWH cancel himself? Cancel culture is alive and well, particularly under oath.
I must have missed the explanation of POOTWH. What does that stand for?
Previous Occupant Of The White House. I hence forth refuse to write or say its name, in any way, shape or form. Dustbin of history for it.
lol thanks. I'm good with that abbreviation. Did you see Rachel Maddow last night revealing how he won't let people refer to him as the Former President? They can't say former.
So if they're saying he can't have an impeachment trial because he's no longer in office but he says he's not the former president, then....??? I can't even think typing this. I'm done.
Yes, I didn't think he would either but the bases are being covered; he can't ever claim he wasn't given a chance to speak in his own defense.
Did POOTWH cancel himself? Cancel culture is alive and well, particularly under oath.
I must have missed the explanation of POOTWH. What does that stand for?
Previous Occupant Of The White House. I hence forth refuse to write or say its name, in any way, shape or form. Dustbin of history for it.
lol thanks. I'm good with that abbreviation. Did you see Rachel Maddow last night revealing how he won't let people refer to him as the Former President? They can't say former.
So if they're saying he can't have an impeachment trial because he's no longer in office but he says he's not the former president, then....??? I can't even think typing this. I'm done.
President
Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House on
Feb. 16, 2017. Trump berated the media repeatedly, calling CNN, The New York Times and other outlets "dishonest" and "very fake news" for reporting unfavorable stories about him. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
[Editor’s Note: STEVEN HARPER is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers]
Opening Statement
“How did this happen in America?”
The answer led the House of
Representatives to impeach then President Donald Trump by the largest
bipartisan vote in American history. Today
we continue the process of holding him accountable for incitement of
insurrection against the government of the United States. The Trump
Insurrection led directly to at least five deaths, injuries to 140 law
enforcement officers and a scar on the heart of our democracy.
So that we all operate from the same
set of indisputable facts, let’s watch four short videos overviewing the
events of January 6, starting withJust Security’s
10-minute excerpt of Trump’s 70-minute speech, which ignited an
insurrection that Trump had fomented for months. Notice the mob’s
reaction as Trump spoke line after incendiary line.
The second video is the Washington Post’s 14-minute encapsulation of the 41 minutes that followed Trump’s diatribe.
The third video, taken by a reporter for The New Yorker, is a view from inside the mob.
The fourth and final video
comes from the bodycam of a law enforcement officer trying to protect
the citadel of democracy that day. Watch the mob beat him with hockey
sticks and flagpoles ripped from the temporary presidential inauguration
structure.
Everything that you just saw and
heard actually – indisputably – happened on January 6, 2021 in the
United States of America. How did it come to this?
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Opinion: Trump’s weak defense will expose the depravity of GOP senators who acquit him
Calling for Trump impeachment, lawmakers describe trauma of Capitol attack
Democrats
and Republicans on Jan. 17 recalled personal experiences of the Capitol
riots and discussed then-President Donald Trump's looming impeachment
trial. (Zach Purser Brown/The Washington Post)
As
former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial gets underway, the
choice GOP senators face is being wildly mischaracterized. We keep
hearing that they must choose between sticking with the former president
or opposing him — between showing “loyalty” to Trump or not showing
loyalty to him.
In one typical framing, the Associated Press reports that the Senate trial will test “the loyalty of Trump’s Republican allies.” A CNN analysis declares GOP senators must now decide whether to pay a price for “deserting an ex-president who still dominates his party.”
Either
GOP senators are loyal to Trump, or they desert him and face the
consequences: The choice is entirely framed as revolving around Trump.
But that isn’t the choice GOP senators actually face, and describing this choice accurately is of paramount importance.
The
real choice they face is not between sticking with Trump or going
against him. Rather, it’s between sticking with Trump or remaining
faithful to their oath of office, which requires them to defend the Constitution against those who would undermine or destroy it, and to the oath of impartiality they take as impeachment jurors.
Trump
tried to overthrow U.S. democracy to keep himself in power
illegitimately, first through corrupt legal efforts, then through nakedly extralegal means, and then by inciting intimidation and violence to disrupt the constitutionally designated process for securing the peaceful conclusion of free and fair elections.
Trump fully intended to subvert the constitutional process designating how our elections unfold, and intended this every step of the way. GOP senators cannot remain “loyal” to Trump without breaking their oaths to execute their public positions faithfully.
The
weakness of Trump’s own defense will reveal the true contours of this
choice — and demonstrate how his defenders, both on his legal team and
in the GOP Senate caucus, will try to bury the inescapable nature of
this choice under mounds of obfuscation.
Trump’s laughably weak defense
Trump’s lawyers will first argue that the Senate “lacks jurisdiction” to try Trump, on the grounds that he no longer holds office. This idea has been roundly debunked by lawyers across the political spectrum, including Chuck Cooper, a conservative legal icon.
As Cooper argued,
the Constitution provides for a Senate vote not just on removal for
“high crimes and misdemeanors,” but also for “disqualification” from
ever holding office again, which by definition must also apply to those
who are no longer in office but might run again later.
But the larger thrust of this “defense” is pernicious in another way.
GOP
senators hope to take refuge in the idea that former presidents are
exempt to give themselves a rhetorical and political means of dodging a
direct vote on whether what Trump actually did do constitutes high
crimes and misdemeanors.
This has been widely depicted as mere tactical maneuvering. But it’s much worse than that: It’s an active evasion of theirown duty as public officials to defend the Constitution. This defense, then, actually unmasks their dereliction of this duty.
Trump incited violent insurrection
Trump’s lawyers will also argue
he is not guilty of “incitement of insurrection.” They will say he
didn’t “direct anyone” to carry out the attack, as he used the word
“peacefully” while haranguing the mob on Jan. 6.
And they will say that because the riots were “preplanned by a small group of criminals,” then Trump cannot have “incited” them.
All this is pure baloney. Trump spent months urging his supporters
to mobilize for war over the election results, which he said could not
be legitimate if he lost, meaning a struggle to overturn them would
inevitably be a righteous cause in their own defense. If some preplanned
the attack, they did so at what they understood — correctly — as his
direction, as their own language has confirmed.
What’s more, if some preplanned the attack well in advance, many did not, and people in this latter group also attacked the Capitol. They, too, were incited by Trump’s haranguing leading up to and on Jan. 6.
And if Trump intended them to be peaceful, it’s strange that he again whipped up rage at then-Vice President Mike Pence while the mob rampaged into the Capitol looking for Pence and lawmakers who were counting electoral votes. It’s also odd that as the rampage worsened, he refused entreaties to call for the very calm his lawyers claim he wanted to see.
Acquitting Trump means declaring that these known facts do not point to high crimes and misdemeanors.
Senators have a duty
Senators take an oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution.” When serving as impeachment jurors, they take another oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution.”
“That second oath doesn’t replace the first,” Brettschneider tells me. “It clarifies it.”
In
acting as jurors, Brettschneider says, senators are supposed to answer
“the specific question” of whether the president is guilty of “high
crimes and misdemeanors.”
“Trump
tried to subvert a free and fair election by spreading disinformation,
trying to force public officials to overturn the results, and riling his
supporters up to attack the Capitol,” Brettschneider continued. “That
is about as paradigmatic a high crime as one can get.”
In
the role of jurors, Brettschneider continues, the two oaths interlock
to denote performance of their “Constitutional duty,” which precludes
operating out of “partisan loyalty to a president.”
In
other words, it’s either the former or the latter. The choice is not
just about whether they are going to be “loyal” to Trump or not. That
idea actually undersells the extraordinary dereliction of duty GOP
senators will be committing if and when they vote to acquit.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
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Ha! Perfect!
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
if it is the only way to bar someone from holding public office again, then it's for sure constitutional in my eyes.
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Hopefully the 5 who voted with the dems today also vote to convict.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Pelosi says Trump impeachment trial ‘will honor the Constitution by establishing justice’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday defended Democrats’ efforts to move forward with a Senate impeachment trial of Trump, declaring that they are doing so in an effort to defend the Constitution and maintaining that “there is no opportunity cost” in doing so.
“Peace is not just the absence of dissension; it is the presence of justice,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. “So we will honor the Constitution by establishing justice.”
Pelosi argued that if Democrats were to refrain from holding a trial, “we might as well remove any penalty from the Constitution of impeachment; just take it out.” But America’s founders, she said, were fearful of two things — “a demagogue and a mob” — and that’s “exactly what descended” on Jan. 6.
The speaker also took a jab at the brief filed this week by Trump’s defense team, which misspelled “the United States,” among other words.
The Democratic impeachment managers, Pelosi said, “have been very, shall we say, silent, hard-working, brilliant in terms of what we saw in the brief, not only wise, but — you might appreciate, well-written — and no spelling mistakes of ‘the United States.’”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in his floor remarks Thursday that the Senate “will move forward with a fair and speedy trial.”
“The House managers will present their case,” Schumer said. “The former president’s counsel will mount a defense, and senators will have to look deep into their consciences and determine if Donald Trump is guilty, and if so, ever qualified again to enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”
By Felicia Sonmez
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
2013 Wrigley 2014 St. Paul 2016 Fenway, Fenway, Wrigley, Wrigley 2018 Missoula, Wrigley, Wrigley 2021 Asbury Park 2022 St Louis 2023 Austin, Austin
He can't without perjuring himself
Trump quickly rejects impeachment managers' request for testimony at impeachment trial https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/politics/impeachment-trial-trump-testify/index.html
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Did you see Rachel Maddow last night revealing how he won't let people refer to him as the Former President? They can't say former.
So if they're saying he can't have an impeachment trial because he's no longer in office but he says he's not the former president, then....??? I can't even think typing this. I'm done.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
The Long Read – The Trial of Donald Trump
Trial lawyer Steven Harper offers a synopsis of the events leading up to Trump's second impeachment trial.
BY Steven Harper | February 5, 2021
President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House on Feb. 16, 2017. Trump berated the media repeatedly, calling CNN, The New York Times and other outlets "dishonest" and "very fake news" for reporting unfavorable stories about him. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
[Editor’s Note: STEVEN HARPER is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers]
Opening Statement
“How did this happen in America?”
The answer led the House of Representatives to impeach then President Donald Trump by the largest bipartisan vote in American history. Today we continue the process of holding him accountable for incitement of insurrection against the government of the United States. The Trump Insurrection led directly to at least five deaths, injuries to 140 law enforcement officers and a scar on the heart of our democracy.
So that we all operate from the same set of indisputable facts, let’s watch four short videos overviewing the events of January 6, starting with Just Security’s 10-minute excerpt of Trump’s 70-minute speech, which ignited an insurrection that Trump had fomented for months. Notice the mob’s reaction as Trump spoke line after incendiary line.
The second video is the Washington Post’s 14-minute encapsulation of the 41 minutes that followed Trump’s diatribe.
RELATED: Democracy & Government
UPDATED: Insurrection Timeline — First the Coup and Then the Cover-Up
BY Steven Harper | February 1, 2021
The third video, taken by a reporter for The New Yorker, is a view from inside the mob.
The fourth and final video comes from the bodycam of a law enforcement officer trying to protect the citadel of democracy that day. Watch the mob beat him with hockey sticks and flagpoles ripped from the temporary presidential inauguration structure.
Everything that you just saw and heard actually – indisputably – happened on January 6, 2021 in the United States of America. How did it come to this?
The story begins six months earlier.
continues....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Opinion: Trump’s weak defense will expose the depravity of GOP senators who acquit him
As former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial gets underway, the choice GOP senators face is being wildly mischaracterized. We keep hearing that they must choose between sticking with the former president or opposing him — between showing “loyalty” to Trump or not showing loyalty to him.
In one typical framing, the Associated Press reports that the Senate trial will test “the loyalty of Trump’s Republican allies.” A CNN analysis declares GOP senators must now decide whether to pay a price for “deserting an ex-president who still dominates his party.”
Either GOP senators are loyal to Trump, or they desert him and face the consequences: The choice is entirely framed as revolving around Trump.
But that isn’t the choice GOP senators actually face, and describing this choice accurately is of paramount importance.
The real choice they face is not between sticking with Trump or going against him. Rather, it’s between sticking with Trump or remaining faithful to their oath of office, which requires them to defend the Constitution against those who would undermine or destroy it, and to the oath of impartiality they take as impeachment jurors.
Trump tried to overthrow U.S. democracy to keep himself in power illegitimately, first through corrupt legal efforts, then through nakedly extralegal means, and then by inciting intimidation and violence to disrupt the constitutionally designated process for securing the peaceful conclusion of free and fair elections.
Trump fully intended to subvert the constitutional process designating how our elections unfold, and intended this every step of the way. GOP senators cannot remain “loyal” to Trump without breaking their oaths to execute their public positions faithfully.
The weakness of Trump’s own defense will reveal the true contours of this choice — and demonstrate how his defenders, both on his legal team and in the GOP Senate caucus, will try to bury the inescapable nature of this choice under mounds of obfuscation.
Trump’s laughably weak defense
Trump’s lawyers will first argue that the Senate “lacks jurisdiction” to try Trump, on the grounds that he no longer holds office. This idea has been roundly debunked by lawyers across the political spectrum, including Chuck Cooper, a conservative legal icon.
As Cooper argued, the Constitution provides for a Senate vote not just on removal for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but also for “disqualification” from ever holding office again, which by definition must also apply to those who are no longer in office but might run again later.
But the larger thrust of this “defense” is pernicious in another way.
GOP senators hope to take refuge in the idea that former presidents are exempt to give themselves a rhetorical and political means of dodging a direct vote on whether what Trump actually did do constitutes high crimes and misdemeanors.
This has been widely depicted as mere tactical maneuvering. But it’s much worse than that: It’s an active evasion of their own duty as public officials to defend the Constitution. This defense, then, actually unmasks their dereliction of this duty.
Trump incited violent insurrection
Trump’s lawyers will also argue he is not guilty of “incitement of insurrection.” They will say he didn’t “direct anyone” to carry out the attack, as he used the word “peacefully” while haranguing the mob on Jan. 6.
And they will say that because the riots were “preplanned by a small group of criminals,” then Trump cannot have “incited” them.
All this is pure baloney. Trump spent months urging his supporters to mobilize for war over the election results, which he said could not be legitimate if he lost, meaning a struggle to overturn them would inevitably be a righteous cause in their own defense. If some preplanned the attack, they did so at what they understood — correctly — as his direction, as their own language has confirmed.
What’s more, if some preplanned the attack well in advance, many did not, and people in this latter group also attacked the Capitol. They, too, were incited by Trump’s haranguing leading up to and on Jan. 6.
And if Trump intended them to be peaceful, it’s strange that he again whipped up rage at then-Vice President Mike Pence while the mob rampaged into the Capitol looking for Pence and lawmakers who were counting electoral votes. It’s also odd that as the rampage worsened, he refused entreaties to call for the very calm his lawyers claim he wanted to see.
Acquitting Trump means declaring that these known facts do not point to high crimes and misdemeanors.
Senators have a duty
Senators take an oath of office to “support and defend the Constitution.” When serving as impeachment jurors, they take another oath to “do impartial justice according to the Constitution.”
Corey Brettschneider, a constitutional scholar who focuses on the role of oaths of office in the constitutional scheme, says these two oaths complement one another.
“That second oath doesn’t replace the first,” Brettschneider tells me. “It clarifies it.”
In acting as jurors, Brettschneider says, senators are supposed to answer “the specific question” of whether the president is guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“Trump tried to subvert a free and fair election by spreading disinformation, trying to force public officials to overturn the results, and riling his supporters up to attack the Capitol,” Brettschneider continued. “That is about as paradigmatic a high crime as one can get.”
In the role of jurors, Brettschneider continues, the two oaths interlock to denote performance of their “Constitutional duty,” which precludes operating out of “partisan loyalty to a president.”
In other words, it’s either the former or the latter. The choice is not just about whether they are going to be “loyal” to Trump or not. That idea actually undersells the extraordinary dereliction of duty GOP senators will be committing if and when they vote to acquit.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14