If the Democrats fall over and crash like a tree in the forest, and the entire country is there listening, did it happen? Oh, yeah. In the bat of an eyelash, it happened. You didn’t imagine it.

If you’re following this morning’s impeachment trial, you know that there was a brief recess after the decision to allow witnesses to testify. The recess went on a few minutes longer than usual and then the written statement of Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler was read into the record. The statement referenced the fact that Trump, in essence, taunted Kevin McCarthy, “there are people more upset than you are” and the statement exposed Trump’s lawyers as the liars that they are. So that’s the good news. But the decision to not call any more witnesses, in exchange for putting Herrera Beutler’s statement into the record, was a thoroughly bad call, in my opinion. A thoroughly bad call.

Some people are blaming Jamie Raskin, although the more likely culprit is Chuck Schumer. Now, the obvious argument for reversing the decision on calling witnesses, is that the outcome of this trial is a fait accompli, Trump will be acquitted once again. We know that. But that does not mean that a stellar opportunity to expose Trump for the agent of destruction that he is, was not passed up. Witnesses could have and should have been called — and yes, it would have dragged the process out. So what? We had four years of Trump making a mockery of this country and all its institutions, it isn’t worth a few weeks or even months of our time and resources as a country to ferret out the truth and put it on public display?

I think that a golden opportunity was just squandered. We had a chance to set the record straight as never before, on a silver platter, and we screwed it up.

I think our leaders lost sight of the goal. The goal of this trial was to expose Trump’s lies and the lies and complicity of his accomplices in the GOP. Now that won’t happen.

Of course they’re spinning it as a victory and they’re right. We did the stupid thing, once again. We will forever more be Charlie Brown and the GOP will be Lucy with the football. I am heartbroken.

 

 

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Schumer handed his balls right back to McConnell when the latter threatened to fuck the entire country with every procedural trick in the book to delay the Covid relief bill. There is a ticking clock on that, both in ramping up vaccinations and other measures but also with continuation of unemployment benefits (and other financial relief for individuals and small businesses) next month. We’ve already seen disastrous consequences from the GOP’s refusal to extend parts of the unemployment benefits in the last relief bill. I get that Schumer had real concerns, but right now it seems to me like he should have called McConnell’s bluff.

        • The American voter saw plenty of evidence. Even McConnell saw plenty of evidence and said so AFTER voting to acquit. The witness issue doesn’t really bother me. McConnell said Trump was guilty as sin but voted to acquit anyway citing his belief that a trial after the president has already left office is unconstitutional. His rationale is bad faith for two reasons: 1) He created the circumstance where the trial would be after the inauguration by refusing to call the Senate back. He cannot use a circumstance he created as the rationale. 2) The Senate voted that the trial was indeed Constitutional, so McConnell and any senator who believes Trump is guilty (and they all do, whatever they say in public) who cites the same rationale is undermining a decision the Senate as a body made.

  2. Democrats are afraid more skeletons will come out of their closet. Did you watch Absolute Proof by Mike Lindell.com.? If you haven’t you should. This is not about Republicans or Democrats is about election integrity.

    • No, this is about a Dictator masquerading as President ordering the assassination by a terrorist mob of Congressmen and Congresswomen for ignoring the Dictator’s orders to reinstall the dictator. Looks like you burrowed so far down Mike Lindell’s rabbit hole of fake conspiracies you’ve tunneled your way to Wuhan, China. Please stay there.

  3. The dems lost before they ever started! They lost when they did NOT DEMAND McConnell to start the trail the day after the house filed with the Senate! They lost when they did not use McConnells “trump is guilty without doubt” video to close with, that video would have been my last act in closing without doubt! The reality is also that the Reps would not go against trump to many of them still are kissing the madman’s ass! 1-6-2021 a marked day in history as will be 1-13-2021 it will go down as the day that democracy died in the USA! It’s a shame that society has de-evolved into red vs blue when the real issue was always democracy vs tyranny!

    • Demand? The House impeached Trump on January 13. On the same day, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Democratic calls to bring the Senate back immediately to hold the trial. I think you are overreacting. It was practically a given from the beginning that the Senate GOP was going to deliver a second corrupt acquittal. Nevertheless, regardless of outcome, the trial was a massive win for Democrats. They successfully got a majority of the Senate to vote for conviction with a record number of by bipartisan votes. The American public got to see the GOP flailing and making all sorts of bad faith arguments like that stupid montage of Democrats saying the word “fight.” The American public also got see McConnell come out after the vote and declare Trump guilty all the while voting to acquit for a spurious reason. The American public now knows for an objective and very public fact that there is no honor or integrity in the GOP. It was a massive political win for Democrats and a massive political loss for the GOP. Their only way out was a vote to convict and they refused to take it. They have sealed their doom as a party.

  4. I am TOTALLY DISGUSTED as usual with Schumer, Raskin, Pelosi, weak scared Democrats et. al. Schumer and Gillibrand MUST BE primaried. I’m a NYer, a Democrat and I never have, and never will vote for either of these cowardly “closet republicans.”

    • I’m a NYer too and shall continue to vote for any D including Schumer and Gillibrand. After 23 years of living in a Red State under total GOP Senate control, I love having blue Senators representing me for the past 3+ years. Would I have preferred that witnesses be called, yes. But all the blame falls on the heads of the GQP Senators who voted to not censure and punish Tя☭mp. What I don’t understand is why the Ds didn’t fight harder for a non-public (secret) vote, which would have led to at least 5 more R Senators voting Yes instead of No, getting the 2/3rd majority needed and leading to charges against Tя☭mp. Onward now for the Ds to pursue criminal charges under 1996 US Code Title 18 Part I Chapter 115 Section 2381 (Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities) against Tя☭mp and all his co-conspirators in Congress, which shall not require a 2/3rd majority to convict, only a simple majority.

    • The only weakness on display was from Republicans. Witnesses were unnecessary. Even the GOP senators had already concluded from the evidence presented that Trump was guilty, and
      McConnell said as much after the vote.

  5. Stop it. Just damned stop it. We want accountability. I get it. With the GQP, as it is today, it wasn’t/isn’t going to happen for 45. The courts – maybe. I’m a survivor of parental narcissism and familial sexual abuse. ACCOUNTABILITY – hell yeah – but it doesn’t happen so then what do we do? How do we go forward? The repugs love it when we attack our own rather than them.

    There’s more to get done. Did I want witnesses? Yup. Did I want the House Managers to be much more forceful? Yup. None of it would have mattered. That’s the rub and it’s not the Dems fault. Always put the effing blame where it belongs. On the GQP. Just like I had to get clear, none of what happened to me was my “fault.” Even confronting the narcissist got me nothing just like confronting 45 with the truth of his words and behavior.

    The Dems are okay. The Dems put up a fight. The Dems put forth the truth. We will know more about why there were no witnesses. There was a good reason. Disappointed? Yes. But for “f” sake – let’s keep on eating up the repugnants and not our own.

    • The House Managers put on an excellent case! But to the RW Cowards in the Senate it was nothing. You can’t reason with the Cult, or with Abusers like you said.

  6. I pretty much assume, as a peasant in the rich man’s kingdom, i have no real idea of what goes on behind the scenes or why. Look, just maybe the public outcry is wayyyy overblown since 6000 destroyed families & 500,000 dead americans & counting DID NOT get multiple co-conspirators, the US Senators removed. They got voted in AFTER the 5years of evil. Moral outrage? What a phucking joke. The only ones outraged are US, & WE fired him. Bring on the criminal charges. Felonies are not easy to dismiss. Time to move on.

  7. Republican Senators were not the real jury. The American voter is. Let them see the Republicans and their endless delay tactics. They’ll think Trump must be guilty or his lawyers wouldn’t be doing something like that. Dems are gonna have to pass Biden’s agenda by themselves anyway unless McConnell makes fools out of them again and again and again.

  8. Everybody is all emotional right now, but I think when the dust settles the impeachment and trial will be seen as a massive win for Democrats and a massive loss for the GOP, especially after McConnell announced that Trump was guilty but they voted to acquit anyway.

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