These lawyers seem to have entirely cut their losses regarding the court of public opinion, in which they are getting their asses handed to them. I’ve never heard such weak stuff in all my life. I think no matter how flagrantly guilty Trump is, most of us here could have made better arguments against conviction than these. Just astonishingly bad. And don’t tell me oh, they’re crazy like foxes etc. etc. Make that argument for Giuliani, Powell et al. in the threescore cases they got thumped hard in and then circle back and explain to me how devilishly crafty this all was.
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Nope, not a real judge and not a real courtroom. The Senate makes it’s own rules however stupid they may be. They are not bound by actual legalities.
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This whole thing is a Marx Brothers movie. Without humor.
Detective: When did your client first know that there was going to be violence?
Groucho: Why don’t you ask your associate, isn’t he in charge of this investigation?
Detective: Yeah but my sergeant is not the one we’re investigating.
Groucho: How would my client know who your sergeant is investigating?
Detective: Your client watched the whole thing!
Groucho: What, your sergeant’s investigation?
Detective: No, idiot! The riot!
Groucho: Riot? What riot? My client was leaning on a podium and saw a bunch of people run by.
Detective: He ordered them to attack!
Groucho: My client can’t order anything. If he could he’d order sandwiches for all of us.
and so on
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The Impeachment Managers did a great job but there’s one angle they nor the media or anyone has covered: Trump never thought he won. He knew from the get go, the day after the election, that he lost and lost fairly and decisively. Being Trump he decided he was going to get what he wanted anyway and the way he always does. Lie, connive, con and use people.
The incitement like “stop the steal”, “fraud” and “we won in a landslide” was a scam of Trump’s planning. He let it build and heat up thinking it would eventually get him what he wanted: the theft of the election (hence the mandatory projection of election theft on the Democrats). When his game went out of control in Michigan with the Capitol stormed by armed losers and a lame kidnap attempt of the Governor you’d think he’d see his game trending into dangerous territory. Nope. He pushed on. He didn’t have what he wanted yet. Again, Trump knew those fools now facing years in prison for posting their intent to kidnap and kill a Governor(for him) were ginned up by his scam. Michigan’s vote was true and Trump knew it. He turned up the heat anyway.
Trump was so intent on cheating at all costs that he turned on his own Veep and made a target of him. He rallied the masses to DC to hear an inflammatory speech and then directed them to march down to the Capitol. He knew it was all part of a scam that he alone would benefit from and others might suffer years of incarceration and ruination for (as many already have) but that’s never stopped Trump in the past.
Why would he stop what he wanted from happening?
At some point after all hell broke loose someone told Trump “people are dead……the Capitol has been ransacked….you must stop this…it’s over now” meaning the scam and then he his feeble go home speech. . The Jan 6 mob was the logical conclusion of what Trump had put in motion for 3 months. It was inevitable and virtually unstoppable because of where Trump pointed it then. The words of his speech that morning can be minced and cherry picked to defend him (which is the thrust of his Senate defense) but put them in their 3 month context and you see a man that committed the most serious crime against America since 1860. With himself his only consideration.
The underlying reason there was a mob and a storming of the Capitol was a lie (called the Big Lie by the MSM) spewed by Trump and without that lie none of it happens. So sure, Trump’s guilty if you look at it from a ”does it happen without Trump” angle. Does it happen without the Big Lie? Nope.
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I don’t know who really is worse. These “defense” lawyers that are knowingly and willfully lying about things we all saw, conflating apples and oranges in their but the Democrats did it too…FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT…BS
Or the Republican Senators that absolutely refuse to see the truth of the situation and refuse to buck Trump and his base. They will do anything to stay in office even if Trump were to shoot someone dead, in cold blood, on 5th Avenue New York, or the US Capitol Mall. (And lump in the House Republicans that did the same thing.)
It’s disgusting and disheartening. I can only hope (without much confidence) that actual conservatives and middle-right voters abandon the Trump Party and either stop voting or vote Democrat until a viable replacement for the GOP can make itself known.
If he is acquitted, as it seems he will be, he will own the GOP until his death…and maybe beyond. Hell, he will probably be the GOP candidate for President every cycle until he’s elected again (*&^%$#@) or dies. And will live high on the GOP hog for all that time.
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Sometimes YoU nEed to fight
SometMes you nED to stand
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Andrew McCabe was recommended to be indicted by prosecutors for “Lack of Candor” when questioned about his job performance. Surely the President should be held to at least as high a standard as his employee.
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at 2:24 p.m., President Trump tweeted that Mike Pence lacked courage
Because, in an emergency, you want your Commander-In-Chief — the most powerful man in the world® — working tweets.
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Two things…excellent post and a breathtakingly evil individual you just described.
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Did the defense lawyers present these videos as evidence?
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I am betting there will be at least one motion for calling trump as a witness that cites his defense lawyers as the reason it’s necessary.
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Hopefully not. If he’s not convicted I hope the Senate votes on banning him from running for any public office, and that vote could succeed with a simple majority.
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Only Trump could have gotten his followers to Washington on the date the Electoral College votes would be accepted by Congress. Only Trump could have gotten them to march down to the Capitol. Only Trump could have gotten them to fight the police and break the doors down.
Trump is the only possible reason for this happening. He even expressed gratitude to those who followed his bidding in real time as it happened.
His followers only listen to him. No one else could have gotten them to act so violently on his behalf. So if Trump’s lawyers maintain he didn’t do it, they have to offered up an alternative instigator who would make their argument plausible. They haven’t even tried. They know it is futile.
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That could only happen if the vote is taken in secret. Can the Democrats pose such a proposal and have enough votes to make it happen now that they have the majority and at least five Republicans willing to cooperate?
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Donald and his cohorts are always busting norms and laughing at us because they’ve learned to bend the rules but skated away on a technicality. The Dems have a majority and I don’t think it’s technically illegal to call for a secret ballot, is it? I mean if the only thing that’s stopping the Republicans from doing the right thing is that they would have to do it in broad daylight; well, problem solved! I don’t doubt for a moment that the Maga party would do something similar if it gave them an advantage.
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I thought that vote could only happen AFTER he’s convicted.
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Go ahead and do it. Let them make the argument. It is Kabuki. We can fuck them for years on this.
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- I am not a lawyer, senate parliamentarian or constitutional scholar.
- That being said here is a question and answer on this topic from WUSA’s website’s “Verify” webpage on this exact topic:
Note that I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this information.
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I don’t quite get your conclusion. The Big Lie is not some animate force. Trump was spreading it. The whole thing is Trump’s doing. The rest of your recap is quite concise and brilliant. I would like to quote it, with the exclusion of the last two sentences. Is that ok?
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He would only lie under oath. And the Republican witnesses would lie for him, too. We were all witnesses to the insurrection and so were the jurors to this impeachment trial. We don’t need Trump to tell us what happened.
Trump was the main speaker at the rally. He sent the crowd down the Mall ready to take action. He was watching the same TV coverage as us. He was talking to McCarthy and calling/texting Senators during the violence.
And he texted his thanks to the terrorists, told them that he loved them and finally sent them home after hours of violence without accomplishing anything…except the death of five people. He would lie about that, too.
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