The D.C. press corps is filling in where the cameras that Mitch McConnell refused to allow into the impeachment trial are absent. So we know just what a farce Republicans consider this exercise to be. And precisely why McConnell made sure the American people don't see it.
Reporter Michael McAuliff tweeted that, a few of hours into Rep. Adam Schiff's presentation "21 empty seats on the GOP side of the Senate, 2 on the Dem side. […] Some are just stretching their legs, but most are not in the chamber. Some of them have been out of there for a while." Those who were out for "for a long time"—Republicans Lindsey Graham, Jim Risch, and Bill Cassidy. Reporter Paul McLeod tweeted about McConnell's histrionics toward the end of Schiff's presentation when "McConnell threw his hands down and made a clear 'are you kidding me?' face." Republican Rand Paul, Ben Jacobs tweeted, decided to occupy his time working on a crossword puzzle. That's how much they care about the process; how much they care about their singular role in our republic.
As for Chief Justice John Roberts, it shows how seriously he's taking this whole thing, too. Because it's his job to enforce the rules, which tell them they have to give up electronic devices and stay silent and are "requested to remain in their seats at all times they are on on the Senate floor" during the proceedings.
They're all taking this about as seriously as they took that oath they swore to at the outset, to provide impartial justice.
One of the more baffling moments of the frequently baffling defense offered up by Trump's impeachment team was an extended rant on "lawyer lawsuits" delivered by Trump personal lawyer and co-conspirator to crimes Jay Sekulow. Nobody could figure out what he was going on about. Here’s a taste:
“Lawyer lawsuits? We’re talking about the impeachment of a president of the United States, duly elected, and the managers are complaining about lawyer lawsuits? The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits. It’s disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this chamber. Lawyer lawsuits.”
It now looks like Sekulow's whole rant was based on him completely mishearing House manager Val Demings. So naturally Team Trump is, rather than admitting that, doubling down on Sekulow's newly discovered bonnet-bug. Of course.
What House manager Demings was talking about, in her own speech, was "FOIA lawsuits" (commonly pronounced as FOY-uh). She was referring, of course, to the Freedom of Information Act-based lawsuits that have secured redacted government documents that the administration attempted to hide from the public. The Washington Post and reporter Igor Bobic, however, report that White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland insisted that Sekulow did not mishear and that "lawyer lawsuits" was a real thing. The transcript "says 'lawyer lawsuit,'" claimed Ueland.
Wait, what transcript? We don't know. Neither of the ones the Post looked at contained such a phrase, and there is certainly a distinct possibility that Ueland is, like the Trump White House continues to do on a daily and hourly basis, simply lying about it. Inventing a new hand-waving outrage out of thin air, refusing to acknowledge those who point out it is incorrect or manufactured, and then angrily insisting the new invention is in fact a great travesty and a shameful, shameful moment for Dear Leader's critics is exactly what Trump's team would do, because it is what Trump's team did throughout the night, over and over.
Republicans were not allowed to witness "secret" House depositions, they insisted. They not only were allowed, but did. Donald Trump was not allowed to present a defense, they shouted to senators. The House invited the White House to send a legal team, produce a defense, and produce documents for that defense; Trump's legal team refused. Republicans were not allowed their own witnesses, they claimed; House Republicans produced multiple witnesses, who were questioned and cross-examined on live television. These were not mischaracterizations. They were lies about recent, extremely televised, extremely reported-on public happenings that we all witnessed.
While Republican senators prattle on about the supposed dignity of their chamber, the Trump legal team lying to the Senate outright about matters in clear public view has resulted in exactly zero outrage from those lawmakers. We can infer from that that they both expect to be lied to and, in fact, are counting on it. It doesn't matter what Trump's "legal team" comes up with during their own presentations. Jay Sekulow can simply invent new words and phrases and scream at the Senate about the outrage they represent, and most of the Republican senators will nod their heads and vote ... exactly like they intended to from the first moment.
Susan Collins is damned if she does stick with Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump on impeachment and damned if she doesn't. The filing deadline for the primary for her Senate seat is March 16, and while she's got the backing of the state's rabid Republicans now, they would turn on her in a split second. Former Gov. Paul LePage, who's endorsed her, has to be casting a beady eye on the seat in case she strays. While Collins has to keep looking over her right shoulder, the rest of Maine is bailing on her, according to the latest polling by Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group for the Democratic Senate Majority PAC.
Pollster Geoff Garin points out, based on the polling, that "Maine voters already see Collins as someone who who makes decisions based on what's best for her and least risky politically. They don't see her as acting on principle or what's best for Maine." That makes her voting lock-step with Republicans against witnesses and documents at Trump's impeachment trial on Tuesday a problem for her. That's because 71% of respondents in Maine said the Senate "[s]hould insist on seeing documents and call witnesses." That's on top of the 53% who say that Trump abused the power of his office, including 57% of independents. She has no room to maneuver here.
This comes on the heels of a Morning Consult survey showing Collins to be the least-popular senator with home-state voters in the entire country, in either party. What was remarkable in that survey, conducted quarterly in every state, wasn't necessarily that she's 10 points underwater in her approval rating with Maine's registered voters, 52% disapprove to 42% approve—a drop of 10 net points since the last survey in September. The big deal is that 93% of Maine voters are familiar enough with her to have an opinion about her. Just 7% percent of Maine voters don't look at her favorably or unfavorably.
In this context, this conclusion from the polling for Senate Majority PAC has got to be striking terror in her heart: "Maine voters do not trust Susan Collins to put principle above politics, and if she votes to acquit President Trump a majority say it will be because she is following a party line and doing what she believes is in her own political interest."
By David Kamioner | January 22, 2020
Fox News reports on Wednesday that 21 GOP Attorneys General have requested that the U.S. Senate bounce both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, saying that the impeachment and trial, “establishes a dangerous historical precedent.”
They pulled no punches.
“If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers’ design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers,” the AGs said. They continued.
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“Even an unsuccessful effort to impeach the President undermines the integrity of the 2020 presidential election because it weaponizes a process that should only be initiated in exceedingly rare circumstances and should never be used for partisan purposes.”
In conclusion, they noted, “It cannot be a legitimate basis to impeach a President for acting in a legal manner that may also be politically advantageous.
Such a standard would be cause for the impeachment of virtually every President, past, present, and future.”
The letter was signed by the GOP Attorneys General of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
The states have hit upon a point also stated by the president’s lawyers in the trial and by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) last week. At least three of the “jurors” in the Senate, Warren, Sanders, and Klobuchar, would directly benefit from a partisan guilty verdict.
RELATED: Chief Justice Roberts Forced to Play Referee During Impeachment Trials
How can a person with that kind of conflict of interest sit on the jury? In fact, the entire 47 member Senate Dem caucus would benefit.
How indeed can they sit in judgment of the man they have already said they desperately want removed from office before he is reelected?
The GOP is in the same boat, you say. They directly benefit from the president’s acquittal. But the GOP didn’t bring these charges, they did not initiate this fiasco and weaponize a process that should be reserved for solemn and dangerous constitutional questions.
Like these:
FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court to ram through more socialism? Sure, impeach and convict him.
John Kennedy’s 1960 election stealing and intimate mob ties? Boot him.
Jimmy Carter, well, just on general principle? He’s history.
But this president has done nothing wrong and these states know it. As does, the American people.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
President Trump Wins His First Impeachment Trial Victory as Senate Votes 53 to 47
Tim Tebow Officially Tied the Knot and Their Wedding Photos Are Stunning
Liberals Shamelessly Boo President Trump and Vice President Pence During Visit to MLK Memorial
The post States Speak Up Asking Senate to Throw Out Impeachment appeared first on The Political Insider.
As the Senate impeachment trial began on Tuesday, its target, President Donald Trump was in Davos, Switzerland, where he delivered what conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh called “one of his finest speeches of his entire administration.”
“The president in Davos today is speaking for America,” Limbaugh told his listeners. “The president in Davos today is speaking for the future of America. It isn’t today’s Democrats. It isn’t today’s leftists. It’s the president. He was on fire, and it may be one of his finest speeches of his entire administration.”
President Trump @WEF in Davos may be giving his best speech ever… educating global leaders about the power of American capitalism.
“I knew if we unleashed the potential of our people, economic prosperity would come roaring back.”
“We’re lifting up Americans of every race” pic.twitter.com/RP8LwQs8er
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 21, 2020
Limbaugh said the President eloquently pushed back against the liberal notion that somehow “America is the problem in the world.”
“This is exactly what bothers him,” Rush said. “It’s bothered him for a long time as a citizen like it’s bothered me, like it’s bothered you, this view of America that has been adopted by the Washington establishment — by our civil service corps, the ambassador corps — that somehow we’re the problem, that we are the destabilizing agent in the world, and it’s a bunch … It’s a crock.”
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“[T]hey love him in Davos, and you know why?” said Limbaugh. “‘Cause he’s been right … [T]he guys that own the yachts are there, and Trump has been going, and he’s telling them two years ago what he was gonna do. He’s telling them two years ago what can be possible.”
Limbaugh: As Impeachment Trial Kicks Off, Trump Gives One Of Best Speeches Of His Presidency https://t.co/nB8g4PQawM pic.twitter.com/bZjrjQlXJt
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 21, 2020
Limbaugh said it was these same elites who “fall prey to all of this liberal thinking and the conventional wisdom — and they fall prey to it because it’s so dominant everywhere,” and yet Trump went to Davos to blow up that establishment orthodoxy.
“Trump stands alone, tells them, ‘No. It’s wrong. America’s gonna be great. We’re coming back; let me tell you how we’re gonna do it,’ and he’s done it,” said Rush. “They love the guy in Davos now because he’s been right about it, and it’s all been beneficial to them — and it’s not just individual wealthy people I’m talking about. Its governments and a number of institutions which have been sucked in. I mean, if the United States elects a guy like Obama then the world thinks, ‘Wow. The United States wants to go socialist. We’d better go socialist. We’ve gotta stay friends with the U.S.,’ and even if they think it’s the wrong thing to do, they did it because they’re afraid of being shut out by the U.S.”
Limbaugh then played a clip of President Trump’s speech to drive home his point.
Trump said, “When I spoke at this forum two years ago, I told you that we had launched the great American comeback. Today, I’m proud to declare that the United States in the midst of an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen before. America’s thriving, America’s flourishing — and, yes, America is winning again like never before.”
President Trump’s speech at Davos will be historic and set a new framework for the world to look at America and understand America. The American economic record under Trump is so amazing that other leaders might want to listen and learn how they could apply it to create jobs.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) January 21, 2020
“Just last week alone, the United States concluded two extraordinary trade deals, the agreement with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, the two biggest trade deals ever made,” Trump said. “These agreements represent a new model of trade for the twenty-first century — agreements that are fair, reciprocal, and that prioritize the needs of workers and families.”
“America’s economic turnaround has been nothing short of spectacular,” Trump continued. “When I took office three years ago, America’s economy was in a rather dismal state. The experts predicted a decade of very, very slow growth — or maybe even negative growth — high unemployment and a dwindling workforce and very much a shrinking middle class.”
“Millions of hardworking, ordinary citizens felt neglected, betrayed, forgotten.” Trump added. “They were rapidly losing faith in the system.”
“Exactly!” Limbaugh exclaimed, continuing to applaud Trump’s speech. “What were they being told? ‘America’s best days are behind us. America’s best days may not have been legitimate. We’re in a new era of decline mandated by world conditions. The United States finally must pay the price for all of its sins that it has committed that led to its superpower status.’ Yada yada yada. Obama’s crowd said, ‘We’re the ones to manage the decline so the pain will be as limited as possible on you.’”
How could anyone listen to Trump's lucid and thrilling speech at Davos today and conclude this man is anything but brilliant?
Compare that performance to Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden bumbling and stumbling all over their words.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) January 21, 2020
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“That’s just three years ago that Trump came along and said, ‘This is not necessary! It’s not necessary to see the country this way.”
“It isn’t necessary to see the world this way,” Limbaugh emphasized.
So while Democrats focus on trying to tear our country apart with their impeachment sideshow, Rush Limbaugh says Donald Trump just showed the world how he is actually making America great again.
Given this contrast, which party do you think might look most attractive to American voters in November?
The post Limbaugh: Trump Gives One Of Best Speeches Of His Presidency As Impeachment Trial Begins appeared first on The Political Insider.
It looks like the accurate characterization of Republican plans for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump as a cover-up is getting under some Republican skin. After Rep. Jerry Nadler dared to call a cover-up a cover-up on the Senate floor late Tuesday night, Republicans are clutching their pearls and declaring themselves offended in a blatant effort to change the subject from the cover-up to how Democrats are mean.
“It was so insulting and outrageous it was a shock to all of us,” Sen. John Cornyn huffed to CNN producer Ali Zaslav.
”They're on a crusade to destroy this man, and they don't care what they destroyed in the process of trying to destroy Donald Trump... I'm covering up nothing. I'm expose your hatred of this president, to the point that you would destroy the institution,” Sen. Lindsey Graham ranted.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski declared herself “offended.” Sen. Ron Johnson said Nadler was “insulting” and “completely inappropriate.” Senate Majority Whip John Thune called it “not helpful to [the Democrats’] cause,” a classic claim from Republicans: It’s not that they’re strenuously trying to change the subject from the facts of the case with an attack on Democrats; it’s that Democrats committed an unforced error.
Get them their fainting couches and smelling salts, now. Members of a historically norm-breaking, institution-dismantling party are just overcome with shock at someone daring to identify their actions for what they are. Or it’s all a strategy of distraction. Hmmm ...
As Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made multiple attempts to subpoena documents and witnesses during the opening day of the Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump’s legal team sang the same tune: This was the wrong time. In response to every round of amendments, Trump’s attorneys repeated the claim that they weren’t really trying to suppress witnesses; it was just that Schumer was asking at the wrong time. There would be a point later in the trial, after the case was made and debates were complete: Then there’d be a time when the rules would allow for witnesses. Or, actually, when the rules would allow for debate over whether any witnesses should be called, with a provision to shut down all witnesses with a single vote.
And McConnell has made it clear how he wants to use that vote. Despite all the overnight protests that if Schumer would only sit down, and the House managers would stop supporting the call for subpoenas, there would be a time for all that later, McConnell has made the real plan perfectly plain to Senate Republicans: He wants no witnesses in this trial. Ever.
As CNN reports, before the trial began, McConnell claimed that he was the impeachment of Bill Clinton as a model for the trial of Trump, leaving the question of calling witnesses until later in the process. McConnell went into the trial pretending that he wasn’t shutting out witnesses, and several Republicans—such as the always-willing-to-pretend-at-fairness Susan Collins—have indicated that they will consider the possibility of calling witnesses.
But the structure of the trial, as defined by McConnell’s passed-at-2-a.m. proposal, means that any witnesses called would come after the case is made by the House managers, and after the period of questioning and debate. So witnesses could appear, say their piece … and apparently leave without comment. During Tuesday’s long session, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff made it clear what McConnell’s trial structure really meant: “A vote to delay is a vote to deny," he said.
That’s not just the plain reading of the resolution that Republicans passed along party lines in the early morning Wednesday; it’s also exactly what McConnell has told his fellow senators in what CNN describes as “private meetings.” In addition to telling those senators that he wants no witnesses, McConnell has promised that if Democrats succeed in getting enough Republican votes to call someone such as John Bolton or Mick Mulvaney, McConnell will respond with flood-the-zone tactics, calling Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and others who are the subjects of right-wing conspiracy theories.
But, especially in light of the rigid voting on Tuesday night, McConnell seems confident that he won’t face that prospect. Instead, he expects to put a bow on the whole affair by this point next week … handing Donald Trump a chance to scream about exoneration without the threat of hearing from a single witness or facing a single document.