…presumably they would have the defendant in the dock.
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That’s what I thought, too. But rules in the Senate seem to get bent out of shape and broken everyday, (especially when McConnell is around). I doubt the Founders were happy after they realized the mistake they had made by not being more specific in the spelling out what the Senate could or could not do.
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We need him under oath. There has to be a process. Can soon be now?
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Thanks for that, it was informative if not definitive. Once upon a time when I saw something on the news, I assumed it was already fact-checked. There were only three channels and UHF back then but I didn’t get mad at the newscaster even if the news wasn’t pleasant. Now I see newsmakers refusing to correct themselves even when confronted with incontrovertible evidence. I would still like to see a secret ballot though.
We are happy to report that the complete stupidification of the Republican Party is way ahead of schedule thanks to Donald Trump. People just are not giving him enough credit for the only thing he has ever succeeded at in his entire life - reducing the IQ of America by 10 points and turning us all into hack lawyers.
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Dems. must get Trump’s tax returns. They are his kryptonite. Come on, Dems. don’t drop the ball. Get the tax returns, release the tax returns, show that the emperor is a fat, ugly, orange, naked and BROKE, septuagenarian. Then let him run in 2024.
Look, there’s only one question we have to answer, OK? And that’s whether 17 Republican Senators are going to commit political suicide by voting against their wildly popular party leader and former President. And we all know the answer to that. So let’s just get this shit over and done with so the good Senators can go back to spiking Biden’s agenda.
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You may be a Capt, but you needn’t belabor it. 
You remind me that MSNBC asked some of their law professors what semi-plausible defenses t…'s lawyers could mount and they came up with several. I heard none of these from his lawyers.
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Has anyone reported the precise time of the call relative to Pence’s evacuation, evacuation of Congress, tuberville’s phone call, and trumps tweets? The very existence of the phone call is damning, but where it falls in the timeline is important too.
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Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called the Senate to order, before van der Veen continued without addressing the question or affirming that Biden won. Sanders stood up and left the chamber as the Trump lawyer responded.
Smugly self-righteous comment from Josh “feet on desk” Hawley about how Bernie Sanders was displaying disrespect for the process in 3 … 2 … 1 …
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“But Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence have had a very good relationship for a long time.” Fucking hilarious. Trump’s lawyers continued, “And Mr Lincoln very much enjoyed the first part of ‘Our American Cousin.’”
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Jamie Raskin: "Do you understand and are you willing to acknowledge that your client is guilty or, are you hell bent on ending your legal career today? You can’t have it both ways…
Oh, and you’re not going to get paid."
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The Senator’s question period was riveting. The best thing about it is it blew the GOP presentation out of the news cycle. No one can remember a thing the Trump lawyers did except for the syntax errors and the racist jabs, and the word ‘fight’. Once Trump’s lawyers were unable to answer the critical question on what Trump knew regarding Pence’s whereabouts and safety, it was over for the GOP. They were on their heels. Raskin was about as good as one will see in handling both factual and constitutional questions, quick on his feet and eloquent. He had a few clips that will be remembered for a long time. Castro was deadly in tying the timeline together and in dredging up prior tweets to show that the messaging from Trump was consistent on demanding violence. Plaskett was very clever in assuming that the House Managers had presented more than enough evidence to convict and that the burden was on Trump to put forward any exculpatory evidence. They had nothing except distractions.
The GOP will acquit but that question period did not help them. They were looking for a reason to rally behind Trump, and instead the Dems, with some help from some good GOP questions, exploited a divide in the GOP over Trump’s conduct towards Pence. Pence is a stand-in for the establishment GOP. While they may not have the affection of GOP voters like Trump, they actually hold positions of power while Trump is unemployed. There is little doubt that if Mitch McConnell were committed to using this trial to excise Trump from the party, he could pull together the 17 votes to do so (that’s less than half of his caucus). While they can’t quit Trump, because he is like a drug for the GOP base, the story of Mike Pence is the ultimate cautionary tale for everyone, anyone who does business with Trump. They all end up ruined and cast aside.
We’ve heard some juicy revelations about convos with McCarthy and Trump, and Tuberville doubled down and confirmed his story about Trump’s phone call. I haven’t been that big on witnesses. The only 2 that matter, imho, are Pence and McCarthy. However, if I were the Dems, I would not bring either of them unless they made public statements confirming the truth of the CNN stories that Trump is lying about his alleged lack of knowledge of Pence’s whereabouts on 1/6, and that McCarthy did in fact have a convo with Trump in which he expressed support for the insurrectionists as the insurrection was unfolding. If they don’t make those statements in advance of appearing in the Senate, then Raskin would have to assume that they would lie on the stand (think Frank Pentangeli from Godfather II). That would be devastating for the Dems, because it would airbrush and sanitize Trump’s story.
Right now, if Trump is acquitted, he’d be like OJ Simpson: acquitted but not exonerated; guilty but for a technicality. If you let Pence/McCarthy and others lie for Trump, then Trump gets an opportunity to frame it as an exoneration. The Dems have done a great job. It will now be up to the courts to take this forward, and for the Dems to get the COVID deal done, fix the economy and prepare for '22.
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Trump again inciting what again, from Mar-A-Loco? What’s this criminal going to do now? And his loyalists? I have no doubt that a growing number of DOJ agents who remain loyal to our country will be ready to issue arrest warrants where appropriate to deal with whatever is left of Trump’s “militias.”
The opportunity to call witnesses has not yet arisen.
The Michigan statehouse was stormed by people stoked by the president about the state’s anti-Covid measures, not the November vote count. So too with the plot against the governor. The Impeachment managers cited those as part of a pattern of Trump inciting violence. Arizona, Nevada and Philadelphia were places Trump goons rallied and threatened violence at Trump’s suggestion over vote counts.
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The presiding judge was an inept flop…belongs in a nursing home not in the US Senate! Lahey was worse than Roberts who was really terrible!
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This is a good point, but McCarthy is now in trouble, because there are now apparently more than one other reps confirming the CNN story. Get him on the stand under oath and if he lies, prosecute him.
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van der Veen replied by saying that it was up to the House managers — the prosecution — to answer that question
I think this is a sneaky way of pleading the 5th
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