After 4 hours of “debate”, when the House Managers fought for an actual trial and Trump’s lawyers talked about Joe Biden, the Senate voted 51-49 for a Trump coverup, and against actual witnesses. Romney and Collins (to this writer’s surprise) voted with all of the Dems. The sham trial continues, and the next step is to turn over the US government to TrumpWorld to strip out what’s left of the American experiment.
Christ on a Crutch.
Today, Adam Schiff had a mic drop moment when he was addressing Trump’s lawyers’ assertion that the House should have gone to court to enforce subpoenas to get Trump’s people to testify. At the very same time they were making that argument on the floor of the Senate, Barr’s DOJ lawyers were in court arguing the House didn’t have the ability to use the courts to enforce their subpoenas. When the judge asked the DOJ lawyers what alternative the House had, the answer was…wait for it…impeachment. Schiff was masterful. Watch it here:
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/senate-stunned-as-schiff-reveals-doj-just-argued-in-court-that-defying-subpoenas-is-an-impeachable-offense/
In a truly jaw dropping moment during the question period at Trump’s impeachment trial, Alan Dershowitz spewed some pretty outrageous assertions, especially when he tried to defend arguing the opposite side of what he argued for the Clinton impeachment trial in 1998. But the breathtaking moment came when Dershowitz actually said that if the president believes his reelection is in “the public interest”, he can do ANYTHING. That’s right, folks, Alan Dershowitz, of OJ Simpson and Jeffery Epstein fame, has now debased himself completely by actually claiming that the president of the United States is immune from all oversight and consequences as long has he/she BELIEVES their reelection is in “the public interest”. The “public interest”? Dershowitz has cleared Richard Nixon of the crimes he committed because he believed his reelection was good for America.
This is the logical result from Trump’s “if I deny it, I didn’t do it defense”. Now, denial is not even needed; if the president believes his actions are in “the public interest” he can just do it and no one can do anything about it. Trump has actually declared himself monarch, and HALF of the Senate is enabling that. I wonder how they’ll feel about their position when he suspends the Constitution and disbands the Congress if he wins (or even loses) the election.
John Bolton’s tell-all book was leaked yesterday (at least the part about Trump’s extortion of Ukraine) by someone, likely WH staff, and it says exactly what you think it does. How did the WH get a copy? A transcript of the book had been provided to the WH on December 30, to review for classified information. According to the NY Times, Bolton confirms that Trump told him personally that he was going to withhold military aid to Ukraine until Zelensky announced investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The account apparently runs dozens of pages, describing not only Trump’s role, but also Giuliani, Mulvaney, Pompeo, and others describes events around Trump’s extortion plan from the Spring of 2019 up until his departure in September. Of course, Trump lied via Twitter last night that he didn’t discuss Ukraine with Bolton. Right. Trump NEVER talked about his Ukraine plan with his national security advisor. That’s believable.
This should ratchet up pressure to allow witnesses in the impeachment trial, but it won’t and you can bet that Cornyn and Cruz will lead the way off the cliff.
The impeachment trial has adjourned for the weekend after only two hours. Impossible to listen to for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a time, Trump’s lawyers alternated between yelling “Nuh Uh!” and lying. In the face of a mountain of evidence, they kept repeating that Trump did nothing wrong without actually refuting any of the charges or said evidence. It’s going to be a long 22 hours left. The lies will be neck-deep by then.
In Davos yesterday, Trump bragged to the press on global television that he has withheld documents from Congress, saying, “…we have all the material; they don’t have the material.” Knowing that the fix is in, he is blatantly boasting about getting away with impeachable behavior, and he’s doing it in front of the entire world.