Sen. Kevin Cramer made it clear Tuesday what he thought about the historic second impeachment trial of Donald Trump: "Welcome to the stupidest week in the Senate."
Shortly before the trial was set to begin, the North Dakota Republican released a video statement criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for using impeachment "flippantly" as a political tool.
"As a response to her view that Donald Trump demeaned the Office of the President, the House Speaker is now making a mockery of Congress and one of the most serious institutions in our country," Cramer said. "It’s disgusting.”
"While Speaker Pelosi sent these backbenchers to tie up the Senate," Cramer said, referring to the House impeachment managers, "she sent the rest of the House home instead of leaving them here to carry out the actual work of the American people."
Although the House is not expected to hold any votes this week or the next, the legislative calendar indicated the time period is designated for committee work, which will likely be focused on shaping the legislation for President Joe Biden's Covid relief package.
Over the last few weeks, many GOP senators have made it clear that they do not believe the trial is constitutional, an argument that Trump's impeachment lawyers are expected to focus on this week. Cramer was among several GOP senators who urged the Trump team to focus on process arguments, rather than relitigating discredited election fraud claims.
“The point here is to avoid conviction. It’s not a great moment for trying to score political points,” Cramer said at the time. “And I don’t think litigating the election is a winning strategy. I think it’s got lower percentage of success than a Hail Mary in the Super Bowl.”
As President Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trail commenced on Tuesday, the Twitter account that formerly belonged to his reelection campaign's rapid response team posted commentary on the proceedings and criticism of congressional Democrats.
One tweet from the "Trump War Room" account issued on Tuesday afternoon targeted Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who is presiding over Trump's trial in his capacity as president pro tempore of the Senate.
"Imagine having a 'trial' where the 'judge' had already voted to convict the defendant?" the tweet read. "That's what happens in banana republics, third world dictatorships and now the United States Senate. SAD!"
The "Trump War Room" account is one of the last remaining Twitter accounts affiliated with Trump and his aides that is accessible on the platform.
Twitter permanently suspended the former president's personal account last month, as well as the @TeamTrump account used by his campaign.
Democratic impeachment managers opened their case against former President Donald Trump with an approximately 13-minute video graphically depicting the Jan. 6 insurrection that overtook the U.S. Capitol.
The video stitched together footage from an array of sources inside and outside of the building during the deadly assault, and featured some of the most infamous images captured that day, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer with blood streaming down his face pleading for backup as he was being crushed inside a doorway.
“If that's not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead House impeachment manager, said at the conclusion of the video. "There can be no doubt that this is a valid and legitimate impeachment. And there can be no doubt that the Senate has the power to try this impeachment."
The compilation also included the sound of a gun being shot within the Capitol, apparently capturing the moment that Capitol Police holding off rioters shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter among the mob that breached the Capitol.
The footage was left uncensored as the people present during the riots screamed epithets and labeled elected officials — including former Vice President Mike Pence — as traitors for not supporting Trump’s lie that the election was stolen from him.
Several other deaths have been linked to the insurrection, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick — who last Tuesday laid in honor in the Capitol, one month after dying from injuries sustained during the riot.
Footage from Jan. 6 is expected to play a central role in the Senate impeachment trial, the entirety of which is expected to be held this month.
Trump is the first president to have been impeached twice, though it appears unlikely that the Senate will vote to convict him of the single article of impeachment passed by the House.
Republicans are desperate to have no witness testimony at Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. They’d much rather run on the pretense that the whole thing is unconstitutional for mumble mumble reasons, and power through the whole of the presentation from the House impeachment managers with hands clamped tightly over their ears. After all, as long as they can pretend to be voting on a technical issue about impeachment, it’s less obvious that they’re actually signing on as full participants in sedition.
On the other hand, Democrats in both the House and Senate seem content to also run the impeachment trial without witnesses. Part of that comes from a concern that if there is a trial stretching out for weeks, Republicans will be on television every day pounding the “the Senate is getting nothing done because of this trial” drum—and ignoring the fact that “getting nothing done” was the definition of almost every day that Mitch McConnell controlled the Senate. Democrats also feel like they already have a solid case against Trump without needing testimony. After all … what he’s accused of is an event that everyone in the nation saw unfold. Every member of the House and Senate was a witness.
But the one person who seems determined to force the House impeachment managers to call witnesses against Trump is … Trump. That’s because the direction he’s taking his legal defense practically screams with the need to bring in people who can explain the truth.
Over the last week, Trump’s legal team and the House impeachment managers have filed a series of letters and replies. In the latest of these, the House team walked through the response that Trump’s attorneys made to the original statement from the impeachment managers.
The first three-fourths of that response lean heavily on the idea that trying Trump after his term in office has expired is not constitutional. It’s an argument that is based largely on quotes taken from work by Michigan State University Professor Brian Kalt, only every single instance has been taken out of context, or misquoted, to completely reverse the intention of Kalt’s readings. That alone may be enough to nudge House managers into calling a witness, because having Kalt appear to take apart the statements by Trump’s legal team has to be tempting—especially since this house of straw is the shelter where every Republican in the Senate is hiding from the big bad wolf of facts.
But there are actually two other parts of Trump’s defense that are even more tempting, both when it comes to calling witnesses and focusing the the case by the House.
First, Trump’s team has inserted into the response the claim that Trump felt “horrible” about the events on Jan. 6, and “immediately” took action to secure the Capitol. That’s pretty amazing, because the most “immediate” response that Trump seems to have taken was to focus the attack on Mike Pence. Ten minutes after the first insurgents smashed their way into the Capitol building, Trump tweeted this:
"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!"
It was an hour and a half later that the announcement was made that National Guard forces were on their way to the Capitol. And that announcement cited approval by Pence. There was no mention of Trump. There were multiple phone calls and communications that afternoon between the Pentagon, local officials, police leadership, and Pence. Not one of these calls seems to have involved Trump.
As The Washington Post has reported, “Trump was initially pleased” by the assault on the Capitol and the resulting halt in the counting of electoral votes. According to Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, Trump was “walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building.” Witnesses said that Trump “belatedly and reluctantly” called for peace only after ignoring people both inside and outside the White House trying to get him to stop his supporters. Then, when Trump finally appeared before the public—following a demand that he do so by Joe Biden—Trump told the people smearing feces along the halls of Congress, “We love you, you’re very special.”
The claims that Trump was immediately horrified and that he acted quickly to restore order are both clearly contradicted by events and statements on that day. In making these claims, Trump’s legal team makes it more likely that witnesses will be summoned to directly counter these false statements and show that Trump is still lying to the American people.
But there’s one last thing about Trump’s final response that may make it even more necessary to call witnesses, no matter what kind of strange threat Lindsey Graham makes. That’s because Trump has apparently made it clear to his attorneys that at no point can they admit he lost the election. Instead, as The Daily Beast reports, every mention of President Biden is only as “former Vice President Joe Biden” and at no time can the attorneys admit that Trump’s lies about voting machines, dead people voting, truckloads of ballots, sharpies affecting outcomes, or any of the other conspiracy theories raised over the course of months … are lies.
Trump is insisting on running a defense that doesn’t just make false claims about his actions on Jan. 6, but one that extends his incitement to violence right into the impeachment trial itself. And that needs to be made clear enough that no flimsy shelter of “we’re only here to talk about technical issues” can protect Republicans when they give the last scrap of their party to Trump.
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chamber's president pro tempore, on Tuesday pledged fairness and an equal say for Senate lawmakers as he presides over the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
"My intention and solemn obligation is to conduct this trial with fairness to all," Leahy wrote in a letter to his Senate colleagues. "I will adhere, as have my predecessors in the Senate who have presided over impeachment trials, to the Constitution and to applicable Senate rules, precedent, and governing resolutions."
Leahy also promised to be guided by Senate precedent and to consult the Parliamentarian on the occasion of a motion, objection or request put before him.
Leahy, the chamber's longest serving Democrat, will preside over the impeachment trial, which began Tuesday afternoon. Any decision he makes as the trial's presiding officer is subject to review by the whole Senate, he said in the letter. He will also submit any constitutional questions brought up by the trial to the entire Senate.