Category: Impeachment

House managers continue to build devastating impeachment case against Trump: Live coverage #2

Posted on by Laura Clawson

Donald Trump has been impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—and in case there was any doubt he’s guilty, he’s bragging about obstruction. But that’s not enough for Senate Republicans determined to protect him at all cost.

On day one of opening arguments, the House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, gave a master class in conveying complicated information clearly and persuasively, while Republicans conveyed their contempt for the proceedings by leaving the room and Chief Justice John Roberts failed to do his job by rebuking their absences. Even before Democrats began to make their case, a majority of Americans believed Trump should be removed from office.

The House impeachment managers—Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia—continue to make their case in the second day of opening arguments. Daily Kos will be following live.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:11:16 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This slide, introduced by up Syliva Garcia, would seem key to much of what’s to be discussed today.

Slide used in impeachment trial showing abuse of power.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:17:08 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia is doing a good job of showing just how upside-down the conspiracy theory on the Bidens really is. Painful that this has to be done, but it has to be done.

And it’s still unlikely to affect Ted Cruz demanding Hunter Biden to appear, or Trump’s attorneys claiming that this was a legitimate thing to investigate.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:20:37 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Much of the case today — and some of the case on Wednesday — is really directed at highlighting just how false the statements from Trump’s team have been, and will be when they get their turn next week. Which doesn’t mean Republicans won’t, loudly and angrily, made the same unfounded claims again. In fact, they’re surely doing so on Fox right now — while talking over Garcia.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:24:03 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This whole section that Garcia has presented on the Biden conspiracy theory is top notch. 

Next Tuesday, every Republican in the Senate will pretend he never heard any of this material.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:29:26 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

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Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:40:08 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia: “Trump had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to commit this abuse of power.”

I like hearing those terms. Garcia tied Trump’s demands concerning Biden directly to polling information. She’s moving now to the Crowdstrike conspiracy theory.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:46:02 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

During the House hearings, no Republican on Intelligence or Judiciary actually tried to support the baseless "Crowdstrike" conspiracy theory. Instead, Nunes, Jordan, et al, pretended that Trump had been upset by an op-ed from a Ukrainian official, and some comments on Facebook.

It will be interesting to see if Trump’s team  tries to support this ridiculous claim. 10-1 odds they’ll just follow the lead of every other person not named “Q” or “Putin” and ignore what Trump was actually asking.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:51:53 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner Sylvia Garcia had just enough slip of the tongue to call the leader of Russia "Voldemort Puddin." Which I think should be made official. And now we get to hear Fiona Hill kicking Trump’s conspiracy theories in the ass. I want that as my alarm clock. Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:57:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I really, really appreciate the House managers taking the time to dismantle the whole ugly Crowdstrike conspiracy and pointing out what Trump was really saying when he made this demand.

It bugged holy f#ck out of me every time this was passively described as just “investigating the 2016 election.”

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:58:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And with the completion of Garcia’s section, McConnell calls for a 15 minute break. Based on past examples, that means about 35 minutes.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 8:02:31 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Let’s have some of this, please.

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Trump celebrates impeachment for abuse of power by bilking the taxpayers even more

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Smack dab in the middle of his impeachment trial for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Donald Trump is shamelessly grifting off the taxpayer, spiking room rates at his Doral Resort just ahead of a Republican National Committee meeting there, which he will attend. HuffPost reports that the rates are more than doubling, from $245 to $539 per night for the least expensive rooms. That $539 is just under the maximum $546 per night per diem rate under federal rules.

Trump will only be there for part of one day, not staying overnight. But he has to have advance staff and Secret Service agents there for a few days ahead of time for security and preparation. The Secret Service wouldn't tell HuffPost how many people will be housed there, at $539 a night each for an unspecified amount of time. But it could result in tens of thousands of dollars flowing into Donald Trump's pocket—tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Of course, the RNC chose Doral as its January meeting site. It’s happy to have its 168 individual members put their money into Trump's pocket. HuffPost estimates that the total cost to the RNC will be $500,000 for food, staff bedrooms, and meeting rooms, in addition to the room cost to the individual attendees. That's on them if they want to keep enriching their dear leader. But they should be forced to reimburse the treasury for the taxpayer costs.

As Robert Weissman, president of the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen, told HuffPost, "What better way to defend yourself in an impeachment trial over abuse of power than to jet to your private golf resort on the public dime, secure lots of publicity for the club on the public dime, and then, possibly, rip off taxpayers by forcing them to pay extra for the staff whose costs at the resort are billed to 'we the people.'"

House managers continue to build devastating impeachment case against Trump: Live coverage #1

Posted on (Updated by Laura Clawson

Donald Trump has been impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—and in case there was any doubt he’s guilty, he’s bragging about obstruction. But that’s not enough for Senate Republicans determined to protect him at all cost.

On day one of opening arguments, the House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, gave a master class in conveying complicated information clearly and persuasively, while Republicans conveyed their contempt for the proceedings by leaving the room and Chief Justice John Roberts failed to do his job by rebuking their absences. Even before Democrats began to make their case, a majority of Americans believed Trump should be removed from office.

The House impeachment managers—Schiff, Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia—continue to make their case in the second day of opening arguments. Daily Kos will be following live.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:11:34 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Ongoing coverage can be found here.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:05:13 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And the second day of the presentation from House managers is underway with a prayer from the Senate chaplain. The expectation is that today is going to focus on how the events detailed on Wednesday relate to the law — and to impeachment. It’s also expected that much of the time today will focus on defining abuse of power.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:09:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

There are 16 hours, 42 minutes left for the House to make it’s case. So expect another roughly eight hour session for Thursday.

Schiff confirms that today is dedicated to looking at the constitutional underpinning of abuse of power. Warns that there will be repetition of facts from Wednesday in the context of talking about constitutional issues.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:12:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rather than the two hour introduction he did on Wednesday, Schiff has handed off the introduction today to Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler. Nadler is listing again the actions behind the abuse charge.

“No president has ever compelled a foreign power to help him cheat in our elections.”

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:13:59 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler mentions how the abuse plays into the obstruction. Schiff noted that the legal case for the abuse of power charge will actually run into Friday, with the rest of Friday devoted to looking at the obstruction charge.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:17:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler: “We will begin by stating the law. Then we will review the facts. Then we will apply the law to the facts.”

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:20:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Clarifying why the definition of abuse of power, and the review of how it applies to impeachment, is so vital to the case.

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Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:23:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler is starting off by defending impeachment itself. Which may seem unnecessary — except for the 10 million Republican statements about “undoing an election” and the official letter from White House counsel just this week indicating that impeachment is no longer needed.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:26:00 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Having defined the necessity of impeachment, Nadler is moving to he definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Which is a fascinating history lesson all on its own.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:31:52 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

With the camera locked down, I can’t see if Rand Paul is playing Nintendo during the review past impeachments.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:35:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler: “All prior impeachments … have included abuse of power.”

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:38:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler knee-caps the Trump defense team by showing past testimony from Alan Dershowitz defending abuse of power as a reason for impeachment. Then follows up by noting the 2018 note from William Barr making the same statement.

That was a big preemptive strike on a major part of the Trump case. 

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:44:57 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Don’t know if Nadler wrote all of this speech, but it’s really good. Mixes historical quotes with current facts, expands on the nature of abuse of power, deals with the concerns of the founders without making them out as godlike … it’s good.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:49:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

There needs to be a special award for every nerd on the House management team who was a member of their high school A/V Club. They've managed to call up hundreds of clips and slides, and so far haven't left America looking at a blank screen or the wrong material.

Oscars? Are you watching this?

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:52:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And now we get the clip of Lindsey Graham arguing the definition of “high crimes” during the Clinton impeachment. 

This whole presentation may be more “polite” but it’s just as aggressive as Nadler jumping in on Tuesday evening to call Republicans voting to cover-up evidence “treacherous.” 

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 6:53:42 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Federalist 65! That’s been my go-to quote about this whole thing from the beginning. Nice to see it used here.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:00:57 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Nadler making it clear that impeachment articles unconnected to a underlying charge of violating a law aren’t just common, but practically universal. The review may seem extensive, but the sheer repetition and list of cases here has impact.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:03:29 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

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Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:05:31 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Sylvia Garcia takes over with a focus on showing that Trump directed the scheme in Ukraine, and did so with corrupt intent.

Thursday, Jan 23, 2020 · 7:09:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

This slide seems as if it’s going to be key to the remainder of the day.

Slide used in impeachment trial showing abuse of power.

‘With me, there’s no lying,’ Trump says as he lies and lies and lies and lies about impeachment

Posted on by Laura Clawson

“Now, with me, there's no lying,” Donald Trump said Wednesday about impeachment. You know what happened next, right? Yup, Trump unleashed a barrage of lies about impeachment. Trump made 14 false claims Wednesday spread out between the press conference in which he said “Now, with me, there's no lying” and interviews with CNBC and Fox Business.

CNN’s invaluable Daniel Dale has the tally: Trump repeatedly claimed, in different ways, that House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff misled Democrats about what Trump said in his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that once the White House released the call summary, “all hell broke out with the Democrats, because they say, 'Wait a minute. This is much different than Shifty Schiff told us.’” In reality, Schiff’s comments on the call came after the White House released the summary, and the only way Democrats were taken aback by the contents of the call is that it was kind of unbelievable how blatantly Trump worked to extort Zelensky.

Trump also claimed that “I never see them talking about the transcription. I never see them talking about the call, because there's nothing to say.” This is false. He has been impeached as a direct result of the call, and it is still being discussed constantly. Sections of the call were read out on Wednesday as part of the impeachment trial.

Trump suggested that two whistleblowers “disappeared,” when really what happened was that one filed a complaint which kicked off an investigation that corroborated the complaint, and a second whistleblower spoke to the intelligence community’s inspector general but did not make a separate complaint. And, Trump said, “when [Democrats] saw this transcript, they said, ‘We got problems,’” which is, once again, false. Or rather, the problems “they” said “we got” are the problems you get with a corrupt president trying to rig an election.

Other Trump lies included basically anything you can think of about funding to Ukraine: he said “They got their money long before schedule,” which they did not on account of how he held it up illegally. He lied about the type of aid that former President Obama extended to Ukraine. He lied about how much funding Ukraine has gotten from Europe.

Donald Trump lies about everything, big and small, but when it’s about impeachment, it’s almost always big. Usually very big, with the biggest being the fundamental claim that the July 25 call that showed firsthand that he was trying to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political opponents is somehow exonerating. He did what Democrats say he did, and we have it in his own words, released on his authority. No matter how often he lies about it, he can’t change it.

Chief Justice Roberts lets Senate Republicans show blatant disdain for impeachment proceedings

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Senate Republicans are united again in saying they've heard absolutely nothing new in the House impeachment managers presentation against Donald Trump. That's after they voted en masse, as a unified bloc, against 10 amendments from Democrats to provide more information at the outset of the trial. They don't want to hear anything new, which is glaringly apparent in their disdain for the rules and blatant flouting of them.

They're acting like a bunch of middle school kids bored in their civics class. "Gum-chewing, snacking, yawning and alleged napping could be seen throughout the cramped chamber," AP's Laurie Kellman reports. "Some openly snickered when lead prosecutor Adam Schiff said he’d only speak for 10 minutes. And when one of the freshman House prosecutors stood to speak, many of the senator-jurors bolted for the cloak rooms, where their phones are stored." Which is the least of it. Numerous Republican senators have been reported to have just left for long stretches at a time. Rand Paul brought in a crossword to play with. At one point more 1/5 of the Senate—21 members—were out of the chamber. Which leads to one major question: what in the hell is Chief Justice John Roberts doing in the meantime, since he's refusing to enforce the rules?

He is presiding over this trial, which is supposed to mean enforcing the rules, not acting like a potted plant and doing whatever it is he's been doing—catching up on reading? Crossword puzzles? We don't know that either, because Mitch McConnell didn't let any cameras in besides the ones controlled by him. We get one camera view, the person who is speaking, so all the senators who are supposed to be remaining in their seats, paying attention, not talking can do whatever the hell they want, it seems.

Republicans clearly don't give a damn about anything, Trump could steal the entire treasury and if they got a kickback, they'd be fine with it. But they're being just a little too obvious in that, underestimating the extent to which the voters are turning against them, both in hearing new witnesses and documents, and in convicting and removing Trump from office.

They're playing with fire, increasing the likelihood that they'll be severely burned in November.

Republicans play the ‘Obama did it too’ card on military assistance—and of course they’re lying

Posted on by Mark Sumner

The first statements from Donald Trump’s defense team in the impeachment trial in the Senate on Tuesday included multiple big, instantly refutable lies, such as White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s claim that no Republicans were allowed into the “secret hearings” held in the House, or that Republicans weren’t allowed to call witnesses. But among a laundry list of talking points disconnected from reality, there was one that stood out: the claim that Trump did nothing wrong because President Barack Obama also withheld funds, from Egypt. 

Obama did withhold funds. He did so when, between the time Congress allocated funds and the time the Pentagon approved their release, military forces in Egypt mounted a coup. Not only were those funds not approved to be sent, not only did Obama notify Congress that they were being withheld, but members of Congress insisted that the funds not be turned over. That included pleas from Sen. Lindsey Graham to hold the funds. But as the House team continues to lay out its case, and Republicans wait for their chance, it appears that “Obama did it too” is going to be the go-to argument from Team Trump.

Overnight, Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted out a list of supposed holds placed by Obama (not all of which appear to be real). Then Sen. John Cornyn joined in, both on Twitter and in an interview, to expand the claim not just to Obama, but to administrations going back to Nixon. Neither Cornyn nor Blackburn claimed that Obama withheld funds so that he could twist the arm of a foreign leader so he’d give him a personal political advantage. So far. But it seems likely that they will, as the Obama-did-it-too meme becomes the latest attempt from the Republican side to distract from Trump’s crimes.

Of course, there’s more that Blackburn and Cornyn are ignoring than just the lack of a quid pro quo in any of Obama’s foreign assistance delays. Every aid package has qualifications that have to be met in order for the aid to be approved. Legislation authorizing foreign assistance routinely includes review by agencies that have to sign off that goals have been achieved in advance of the release. In the case of 2019 assistance to Ukraine, that responsibility was assigned to the Department of Defense, which completed its review on May 23 with a conclusion that Ukraine had met required goals on both fighting corruption and promoting democracy.

What happened in past delays was often simply that the certifying agencies found issues, or that, as in the case of Egypt, conditions on the ground had changed significantly between the time the legislation was passed and the time the funds were slated to go out. In some cases, the result was further review before funds were eventually released. In some cases, the result was a more prolonged delay: Egypt didn’t get any funds from the U.S. for almost two years, until the State Department was satisfied that the new president wasn’t just a puppet of the military. In every case, both Congress and the public were aware not just that there was a delay, but of the reasons for the delay. 

In the case of Trump and Ukraine, the assistance was approved by the Department of Defense just two months after the election of a new Ukrainian president who ran on an anticorruption platform. Then Trump placed a hold on the funds in secret. He provided no reason for the delay. The DOD was instructed not to talk about the delay. Congress was not informed of the delay. No reason was ever given for the delay. And the delay remained in place until 1) the delay wasn’t just obvious, but also the subject of public articles, 2) multiple senators contacted the White House expressing concern, 3) three separate House investigations were opened, 4) the White House counsel informed Trump that the whistleblower report was circulating, and 5) the intelligence community inspector general determined that the whistleblower report was urgent. Then Trump released the funds, and Republicans began to make up explanations for the hold—explanations that shifted on a nearly daily basis during the House impeachment hearings.

Other foreign assistance packages have been delayed. For good reasons. With notification of and cooperation from Congress.

Try again, Republicans. Try again.

CNN Analyst: Yeah, I Made Up That Conversation Between Two Senators Shocked At Trump’s Action

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Joe Lockhart, CNN analyst and former White House Press Secretary under Bill Clinton, admitted fabricating a conversation between two GOP senators supposedly shocked at learning what President Trump had done during the impeachment trial.

Lockhart on Wednesday tweeted that he had “overheard” a discussion between two Republican lawmakers who had supposedly become enlightened by the facts after remaining in the dark because they “only watch Fox News.”

“[I]s this stuff real? I haven’t heard any of this before. I thought it was all about a server,” he wrote. “If half the stuff Schiff is saying is true, we’re up shit’s creek. Hope the White House has exculpatory evidence.”

Those were words he shared in the public domain using quotations.

Of course, a majority of the ‘stuff’ Democrat Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff is saying is untrue.

And, it turns out, Lockhart took a page from Schiff, who had fabricated a conversation between President Trump and Ukraine’s president at the onset of the impeachment effort.

Lockhart would later tweet that he “made up the convo.”

RELATED: Former White House Press Secretary Accuses Kavanaugh Of Lying About Yearbook Quotes But Fails To Back It Up

Just Satire

When you have ‘CNN Political Analyst’ in your bio, and your network has been successfully sued for creating fake news, it might not be the best idea to engage in satire.

Yet, here we are.

Lockhart’s original post about the completely made-up conversation earned over 8,000 retweets and 32,000 likes. His follow-up saying he was just kidding? Just over 800 retweets and 9,000 likes.

Media bias 101.

Lockhart then gave the standard ‘sorry you people were too stupid to get the joke’ apology.

“Sorry people thought this was real. Satire and sarcasm do help make these points though,” he tweeted.

Later, he doubled down and blasted people for coming after his fake news story.

“Seems like I poked the bear today. The purveyors of Pizzagate and the Seth Rich conspiracy are lecturing me on honesty,” Lockhart complained. “I told a joke, you guys are a destructive joke that is killing our democracy.”

In a separate conversation, having just completely made stuff up, the CNN analyst had the gall to write, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

Satirical news site the ‘Babylon Bee’ poked fun at Lockhart.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi On Schiff’s Made Up Trump Phone Call: ‘He Did Not Make It Up’

Just Emulating His Hero

Lockhart can hardly be blamed. Perhaps he was just trying to emulate his muse in House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.

Schiff undeniably fabricated an entire mob-like conversation between President’s Trump and Zelensky during a congressional whistleblower hearing in early October.

Lockhart, apparently smitten with Schiff, decided to fabricate his own conversation which he too defended by claiming it was just a joke.

During the Senate’s impeachment trial proceedings, Lockhart tweeted that “[Schiff] is a national treasure.”

The only jokes here are Lockhart, Schiff, and the network who puts both individuals on their airwaves to consistently lie to the American people.

The post CNN Analyst: Yeah, I Made Up That Conversation Between Two Senators Shocked At Trump’s Action appeared first on The Political Insider.

Rand Paul Invites Trump as Guest to Attend Impeachment Trial

Posted on by Rusty Weiss

Senator Rand Paul has extended an invitation to President Trump to attend the impeachment trial in the Senate, allowing him an in-person look at the “partisan charade.”

The Kentucky lawmaker tweeted a picture of a ticket admitting the “bearer to the Senate gallery.”

Paul added, “I heard [President Trump] would like to attend the impeachment trial. Mr. President, would love to have you as my guest during this partisan charade.”

The President shared Paul’s tweet but made no indication that he would accept the invitation, which would perhaps rank as the greatest and most entertaining +1 in political history.

RELATED: Rand Paul Obliterates Reporter Who Claims It’s Illegal To Out Whistleblower

Partisan Charade

President Trump also shared a post by Rand Paul in which the Senator explained that Impeachment Manager Adam Schiff’s buffoonery is uniting the Republican party.

“The more we hear from Adam Schiff, the more the GOP is getting unified against this partisan charade!” Paul tweeted.

Trump shared the message adding the simple caption: “True!”

Meanwhile, Schiff is doing everything in his power to prove them right, suggesting during the impeachment trial that Democrats are driven by an effort to stop President Trump from winning re-election.

RELATED: Schiff: Calling Hunter Biden to Testify an ‘Abuse’ of Impeachment Process

Claims Election Will Be Rigged

Schiff’s presentation to the Senate that the President should be removed from office included a suggestion that the 2020 election would be rigged otherwise.

Trump, you see, must be impeached as the only means to ensure “the [2020] vote will be fairly won.”

I’m old enough to remember when Democrats thought claims of a rigged election were a ‘direct threat to democracy.’

In fact, it was Schiff himself who tweeted in October of 2016, when smug Democrats all thought Hillary Clinton was going to cruise to victory, that Trump was “unfit for any office” if he could not accept the results of an election.

By Schiff’s own standards it is he – not President Trump – who should be removed from office.

The President thus far has not answered Paul’s invite, but it’d be a hell of a show if he were able to look Schiff in the eye while the Democrat continues to lie to the American people.

Get your popcorn ready!

The post Rand Paul Invites Trump as Guest to Attend Impeachment Trial appeared first on The Political Insider.

Trump’s trial, day one: A master class from House Democrats, and empty seats from Senate Republicans

Posted on by Mark Sumner

On the first full day of the presentation to the Senate in the impeachment trial against Donald Trump, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and the House management team delivered the evidence against Trump in three different ways: in a two-hour opening statement; in a six-hour walk-through of the whole timeline of events; and in a ten-minute recap of the highlights. The entire team was effective, and the presentation was clear. Schiff’s opening account was genuinely compelling—sharp, precise, impactful, well-supported by short moments of testimony from the House hearings, and leaving absolutely no doubt as to Trump’s guilt.

So naturally, throughout the day, Republicans left their seats, wandered out into the hallways, and complained that they were “bored.” Though the rules of the trial require all senators to be present, double-digit numbers of Republicans were missing at any given time. At least one, Missouri’s Josh Hawley, found an opportunity to make an appearance with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson during the trial … without garnering as much as the shake of a finger from Chief Justice John Roberts. 

For anyone tuning in from outside the Senate, Schiff’s opening was a master class in getting across complex information. Despite the volume of material on events and individuals, Schiff moved from point to point with precision, delivering information in a speech that’s likely to appear in future textbooks. Even for those who had seen the facts presented in House hearings, he was simply compelling. For anyone watching—whether or not they knew the facts of the case coming in—it was spellbinding work: a scene straight out of the best courtroom dramas.

Following Schiff’s introduction of the facts, the House team worked through events in a timeline, starting with the smear campaign to unseat U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and proceeding to the whistleblower, congressional investigations, and the eventual release of U.S. aid that had been allocated to Ukraine. Each presenter took a section of the timeline, mixing a recitation of facts with snatches of testimony. All of the presentations moved the story forward, but some presenters brought additional energy to their time in front of the camera, presenting the information in a personal and genuine way. In Rep. Val Demings’ case, her experience in law enforcement came through in her clear disdain for the criminal behavior of Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and others maneuvering to game the system for personal gain.

Unlike the lengthy opening act on Tuesday, when amendments, efforts to obtain witnesses, and Republican actions to suppress those witnesses carried the hearing into the early hours of the morning, Schiff actually wrapped the presentation within 8 hours after it began, revisiting the high points of the day in a compressed replay. Whereas Schiff used his opening statement to deliver a thorough, sharp account of the events leading to Trump’s impeachment, in the final 10 minutes of the night he touched again on some of the most compelling moments of that story. That included the scheme against Yovanovitch and the sorry spectacle of officials standing back to allow Giuliani to threaten and harass a widely respected ambassador.

Across all the presentations, there was a theme: Trump wasn’t fighting corruption; he was the source of corruption. The actions that Trump took in an effort to secure an announcement that had personal benefits only for him came at the cost of the national security of the U.S. and Ukraine. It also came at enormous cost to the relationship between the two nations, and to the whole idea that the United States is on the side of justice and democracy.

And, of course, despite the fact that this was the first day of the presentation; despite the fact that many Republican senators claimed not to have watched a moment of the hearings in the House; despite the fact that Schiff and his team presented their information in a way that would have made a must-watch documentary—or a genuinely outstanding college course—there were those empty seats. Republicans complained that the information was just the same thing over and over, that they were bored, that they … were absent. Anyone wondering why Mitch McConnell locked down the camera locations and kicked out C-SPAN has their answer in those empty seats.

Chief Justice John Roberts opened his mouth long enough on Tuesday evening to caution visitors that this was the United States Senate, the “greatest deliberative body” on the planet. He should have told the senators. But then, it seemed Roberts had no concern about the Republicans violating the rules he was supposed to enforce.

What to expect as impeachment trial resumes Thursday

Posted on by Laura Clawson

Thursday is the second day of opening arguments in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, with House managers taking up where they left off Wednesday night: methodically making the case against Trump as Republican senators break the rules by leaving the Senate chamber and otherwise show their contempt for the truth and the Constitution.

Each team has 24 hours over three days to make opening arguments, so the defense will likely start on Saturday, though it would be kind of funny to watch if the House managers wrapped up unexpectedly on Thursday and left the defense scrambling to be ready to start Friday. Or it would be, if Trump’s defense team was trying to make a coherent, fact-based argument rather than just shouting lies, which they’re prepared to do at any and all times.

The trial begins at 1 p.m. ET and is likely to once again wrap up shortly before 10 p.m. ET. The House managers making the case are House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, and Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Hakeem Jeffries, Val Demings, Jason Crow, and Sylvia Garcia.