Really tough to figure out what benefit derives - for either side - from additional proceedings. The positions are out there. It comes down to personal preferences and integrity.
For politicians and others, there is plenty for anyone to form their opinion. Not sure what could possibly convince anyone to change their minds - unless the additional process changes the trend of publicity, which would persuade craven politicians to reposition.
Do Democrats think anything will be done that will make it embarrassing/costly for enough Repubs to vote to convict? I find that extremely unlikely. Instead, I fear that the strongest evidence has been shown. Anything more will just be piling on, and to even supporters, will seem like unnecessary effort in a losing cause. This was done. It (unfortunately) is largely political posturing. Time to move on to more serious business of governing.
There is enough ammo to try to tarnish Trump and any of his supporters. I realy don’t know what costs/benefits apply to the Repub Trump enablers. Their supporters will remain eager to continue in their support. Let’s just hope they become more and more marginalized.
My point is that they can, but they don’t have to, and putting his ass in that chair and forcing him to say those words in front of them would definitely be to their advantage.
What was that oath MItch swore just a little while ago?
I solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be,) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of , now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.
So now he’s made up his mind before the end of the trial, before testimony from witnesses. He’s just broken his oath sworn before God. Throw him out.
Big fucking whoop. At this point they are bathing in tarnish, and it looks good to the Trumpettes-Your approach is about as effective as saying “Shame, shame!” to a cat.
Okay, they could, but I think this is unlikely. I expect there are enough Democrats with instincts towards appearance of fairness to make sure that all the witnesses can testify in the same way, if they prefer.
I’m wondering if mr schoen will throw in the towel. Reporting is he wanted to quit on Thursday, but was talked into staying. When he left yesterday he thought he was done. The defence team is rather fractured.
The senate was to be off next week so this will not impact senate business for 7 ish days.
Now the senate has to vote how many witnesses, and who. Each witness much get a simple majority.
Yes, because anything he says in this proceeding could be used against him in a subsequent criminal trial. You’ll recall the (alleged) mafia types took the fifth at Senate hearings in the 50s, which also wasn’t a criminal trial.
Sure sure, let’s just move on. So Trump sent a mob to kill legislators while they were in the middle of counting Electoral votes. Who among us has not done that?
Let’s just move on so that the Republicans can get on with blocking every single piece of legislation they can, damaging the economy and health of the nation in order to regain power.
Let’s all agree that next election, it’s OK for Republicans to get an angry mob together to kill politicians if they don’t like the results.
I think some folks may be indulging in a fantasy where Trump is called to the Senate to face a grilling where he pulls a Jack Nicholson under pressure (as linked to above already), thereby causing previously reluctant GOP senators to vote to convict. I suspect anyone holding onto this thread of hope is going to be sorely, sorely disappointed.
Yeah, what I want the prosecutors to do is use the witness testimony to hammer home incontrovertibly how terroristic these actions were and how craven the Republicans who try to downplay them are being.
No pointless hogging of the limelight in the quixotic belief that sufficiently dramatic Perry-Mason-style courtroom theatrics might enable those Republicans to grow a spine and vote to convict. That won’t happen.
The prosecution should do its job thoroughly, and get this criminality nailed down for the historical record, but without any desperate contortions to force Republicans into recognizing their constitutional duty. They’re not going to.
A bunch of naive, idiot talking heads said on January 6th, “Mitch McConnell may be partisan, but he cares about the institution of Congress and he cares about the Constitution, and he is acting like a statesman now.”
BWAHAHAHAHAH!!! BWAHAHAHAHAH!! Oh FFS! F— me! Mitch is states…BWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAAAHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
If the Democrat called witnesses testify that they made calls, or carried messages directly to Trump about the danger that Pence was facing then it would prove forensically that Trump failed to even attempt to intervene with his followers - who we have already seen were monitoring and quoting his tweets even as they were trying to track down targets.
So who would be in that information chain - likely Pelosi and Pence and their protection, the protection at the Trump end - that’s a lot of secret service personell and not to mention any other Senators or observers.
Recall that Pence was also carrying the Nuclear football, its not just about protecting him, it is way more serious than that, because it means that the whole chain of command of Nuclear deterrence also has to be notified according to the very strict transfer protocols - it really isn’t a game.
That leaves a lot of very high level folk that will have to be formally informed both Pence and Pelosi are at risk - those folk who are in the chain will also have had to take specific courses of action - which at the very least would involve moving to a designated place of safety.
If such a situation can be confirmed, then good luck to any Republican senators in not convicting Trump - failure to do so could be taken to mean a direct threat to national security since they are no longer capable of protecting the constitution in the most absolutely basic way - continued existance of the US itself.
Think about this, what would have been the position if suddenly N Korea just decided to fire a few off? or even Russia, no chain of command and a compromised response.
You can be extremely sure that the enemies of the US have put all this into their nuclear gameplan models.
I’m already quite sure that there are many senior members of the Republican Party who are actively involved in helping enemies of the US create these models.
As a libertarian I can’t say I was enthusiastic about any President I have known but even with the ones I vehemently disagreed with I never had the impression he was not doing what he thought was best for the country and its inhabitants. Until Trump.
If we get out of this fix intact, I think the sensible members of congress (including all five Republicans) will now realize they can no longer give away power to the executive branch and need to keep an over watch on POTUS regardless of who s/he is.
And speaking of surviving intact, I think the Republican party has made the classic aeronautical error of flying too low into a box canyon. You can’t turn left, you can’t turn right, and you can’t climb fast enough to avoid the inevitable.