Assuming that Donald Trump will eventually be acquitted by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, the overall effect of the impeachment process will be determined by how the American public feels about the process. From that standpoint, Mitch McConnell really isn’t doing the president or his colleagues any favors by ramming through a transparently self-serving set of rules designed to limit viewership, testimony and evidence.
I can only conclude one of two things from this. Either McConnell isn’t very bright or he realizes that there is a real risk that he’ll face an internal revolt and actual votes for conviction if he doesn’t keep a tight lid on what can be presented during the trial. After all, he told Sean Hannity a few weeks ago that there is “zero chance” that Trump will be convicted in the Senate, but if that is true then he ought to bend over backwards to make sure that the public accepts the verdict. Since he is clearly willing to forego any perception of fairness or even thoroughness, it indicates that there is a chance Trump could be removed from office.
And McConnell has really outdone himself in how he’s decided to game this trial. He’s asking the Democratic House Managers to make their case in no more than 24 hours in a 48-hour window, and they won’t be allowed to begin until the early afternoon. That means they’ll have to go all night if they want to use all their time. McConnell has also refused to accept the evidence from the House and will force his members to defy him on a case-by-case basis in order for it to be admitted. Witnesses will have to be deposed before they can give evidence, but he provides no time for them to be deposed, and that assumes they’re allowed to at all. He’ll also limit what kind of feeds CSPAN can use, bar reporters from having convenient access, and perhaps even force any Bolton testimony to be given in a classified setting.
This all may make for a quicker trial, but that’s the only real advantage I can see. If Trump were truly invulnerable, none of this would be necessary.
One thing the Democrats could do is simply impeach him again. But first they’d have to refuse to participate in this sham and declare that they will reopen the case to incorporate all the evidence that has come out since the impeachment vote and to get the testimony John Bolton offered to the Senate. I’d immediately subpoena Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, Victoria Toensing, Joe DiGenova, reporter John Solomon, Derek Harvey, and Rudy Giuliani. And after they have all testified, I’d hold another impeachment vote and challenge McConnell to pull the same crap.
The Democrats should get this testimony anyway, regardless of what they decide to do with McConnell’s stupid rules. Either way, McConnell seems weak and stupid to me, even if he thinks he’s projecting strength.
Having watched McConnell over the past decade, I’d go with “weak, but not stupid”. McConnell’s proven time and again that he’s a savvy party leader who can keep his caucus together. (The curious incident of the failure of a Blue Dog-like caucus of Senate Republican centrists to emerge as a viable force at any time in the past 11 years is, among other things, a testament to McConnell’s political skills.)
I agree: if McConnell thought there was no way Trump would be convicted (or even just seriously weakened) by a fair trial, then these proposed rules wouldn’t exist.
That they do exist is a sign of how glaringly weak McConnell’s (and by extension, the Republican party’s) position truly is. In which case, the appropriate response from the Democrats is/should be precisely along the lines suggested above: continue pressing forward using all available tactics to try to force a break in the Republican lines…and failing that, a break in public opinion that weakens the Republicans in November.
” I’d immediately subpoena Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, Victoria Toensing, Joe DiGenova, reporter John Solomon, Derek Harvey, and Rudy Giuliani. And after they have all testified, I’d hold another impeachment vote and challenge McConnell to pull the same crap.”
This would require an actual spine and I just don’t see it in them…I am hoping they’ll surprise me but I am not expecting it.
Congress had their chance to make a stand when the crooks started ignoring subpoenas and they didn’t.
The question becomes how much of a sham proceeding Team Conservative coach Roberts is willing to countenance as presiding judge. He could rule that it’s not reasonable to require the prosecution, jurors and judge work through the night, then have the “defense” team do the same. Dem senators should vocally object on the floor, Repub “rules” be damned. Does anyone think Repub senators would keep their mouths shut if the shoe was on the other foot?
And the Dem managers can simply present evidence to Roberts and ask him to rule on its admission. Then see if he is willing to “preside” over an evidence-free “trial” that makes no attempt to determine the truth of the allegations, and have him rule on whether such a sham proceeding can be considered a “trial”, as the word is used in the Impeachment clauses of the Constitution. At every turn the managers should verbally object to every aspect of the sham and make Roberts continually rule in favor of McConnell’s show-trial cover-up. Make sure that there is a press briefing every night laying out what Dems asked for, and how Roberts denied their every motion for a fair trial, hiding behind the unfair “rules” laid out by the Gravedigger of Democracy and his Repub majority. It’s all about the spin now and denouncing the Repub party, most especially the Gravedigger.
(And why Dems don’t start calling him that is beyond me. “Senator McConnell is now being called the Gravedigger of Democracy, and I have to say that his behavior in this orchestrating this sham trial of a lawbreaking executive certainly supports that characterization.” )
Almost certainly Roberts has already told McConnel he is fine with it.
Why do people always assume that the Supreme Court Republicans are somehow separate from the inner workings of Republican strategy? The Court is the Republican ‘backstop’, and in that role are briefed and consulted in real time.
Yes, McConnel is weak and stupid, but not here. He was stupid and weak when he allowed the Chinese and Russians to compromise him, but from that moment on, he’s been running on pure desperation and fear. He’s stupid like a trapped weasel is stupid.
All roads lead to Putin, every single thing they do benefits (or at the very least, does not harm) him.
.
Oh, I’m pretty hip to the fact that the 5 conservative activists masquerading as “justices” are part and parcel of the Repub party and Team Conservative, Nalbar, I just want Roberts to be strongly tied to McConnell’s sham and seen as complicit in it as well. But I do wonder if if this scam has been pre-approved by Roberts.
In any event, he needs to be placed on the hot seat every minute of the sham proceeding, and seen as enabling every McConnell connivance. The “integrity” of Roberts’ 5 Repubs needs to be damaged as well.
“Masquerading as ‘Justices’” is an accurate description.
And the next twenty years will be the proof, over and over and over.
.