Except McConnell hates Trump. So do many of his caucus. There’s a possibility, slim, but not zero, of a last minute John McCain on ACA repeal. Personal animus does matter…
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We need to stop chasing McConnell around. He ALSO ‘privately’ believed that the trial was ‘Constitutional’ but did everything to stop it including voting ‘NO’. He wants to show he is ‘thinking’ but his vote is a done deal.
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If Trump is convicted it will be because enough GQP Senators decided to stay away from the vote on any excuse. ( I expect, “I’ve got to floss a White Shark’s teeth, or swim with migratory Orcas, or some other thing safer than voting to acquit that Mangoloid Idiot,” to be popular.) If 16 stay away, the number of aye votes needed to convict is 56. If 25 stay away he can be convicted without a single GQP vote.
If all 50 of them show up to vote, well…we all know the fix is in in that case. They’ll never find 17 GQP Senators with the courage to do what they ought to do.
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They aren’t.
“In a couple of weeks…” 
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I heard the rumor that a female Republican senator (Marsha Blackburn?) was reading a novel, and a couple of other Republican senators were playing with fidget spinners during the House managers’ presentation. Might not be true; I didn’t see it. But if so, that is most damned juvenile thing I’ve seen. It’s 13-year old smart aleck behavior. It had to be planned, for them to have brought the stuff. Here was the most serious thing a president has ever been charged with, and most serious vote of their lives, and they were being assholes.
I hope they’re happy that their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will know what assholes they were, and that their biography and Wikipedia page will show this to the end of time.
Those grandchildren will want to change their last names: “Blackburn? No, I’m not related to any Blackburns. I swear, my name is Jones.”
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This is just Moscow Mitch playing to the Republican DONORS, who want to hear this from the Minority Leader.
He is trying to rescue his SuperPAC and the NRSC fundraising which has crashed and burned after the insurrection on Jan. 6th.
Mitch doesn’t give a rats ass about Trump anymore, he no longer needs him as a distraction while he stuffs the courts with young, compliant, fascist lackeys to his Big Donors desires.
This is about the MONEY and nothing else. Never forget that.
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Yes, I immediately thought, “He’s assuming a fact not in evidence.”
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Don’t know if anyone is factoring this in and I don’t know what the chances of it are but I’m interested in seeing what happens if there is much movement in the polls regarding the percentage of people that think Trump should be convicted.
It’s already at 56%.
Even though these Republicans are so craven or actually because of it I suspect there is some sort of tipping point at around 60% or slightly above in which they might suddenly change their minds.
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Could it be that “we thought that the House manager’s presentation was well done” will be the straw that broke the camel’s back?
When the evidence is so powerful, and presented with such great effectiveness, and the prosecution (“Oops, I meant the defence”) throws in the towel like that, and a Senator like Cassidy votes against the party line because of it, and McConnell is said to no longer be whipping a vote for acquittal, we may see a movement towards conviction. Perhaps not enough, but there’s still time…
More likely, we’ll see Trump changing lawyers again. Or trying to.
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Nope, Collins won’t vote to convict. If she did vote for conviction, it would show up how stupid her previous “I think he’s learned his lesson” comment was. To validate that earlier comment, she has to acquit now.
Being a person with no morals, that’s exactly what she’ll do.
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We’ll see. McCain at least cared about his own self interest, whereas this crop has yet to display independence from their one-term autocrat.
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Marsha Blackburn knows how to read? Wha??
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Nope. They only care about the 15% who vote in Republican primaries.
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All the defense had to do (all they could do, actually) was deny the connections. And do it again. Then tomorrow. Develop a scenario. Rewrite it for each day of proceedings.
This event was a lock. Yet Castor and Schoen are snatching defeat from well over the event horizon.
These two guys? Were I a client of theirs previously? Would not be one today.
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Agree.
Trump has raised over $250 million since the election, which he can presumably use for his defense. Instead, he is pocketing most of that cash grab, and his lawyers’ laughably inept performance indicates that Trump is doing the equivalent of taking a hearty dump on the Senate floor and making Republican Senators clean it up.
He won’t allow them to save face because, he is reminding them, they are all his bitches and didn’t do enough to ‘stop the steal.’ Now, crawl!
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Trump’s acquittal is a foregone conclusion. Republicans have calculated their re-election chances without his support/supporters and will vote accordingly. It’s just that simple.
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I read somewhere where several, including Rubio, Scott and Paul, were looking at papers either in their laps or on their desks.
They don’t need to see the evidence because they’ve already decided. It would be better if the final vote to acquit or convict appointment just didn’t show up on their calendars. If they don’t show up, the margin to convict is smaller.
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Rand Paul (Asshole, KY) wasn’t wearing a mask either. I wished that Leahy had nailed him on that.
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