The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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Good article on what is going on.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knows Donald Trump is guilty. He just doesn’t care — McConnell plans to cover it up and doesn’t even really care how obvious that is

All that was made clear from an article published late Wednesday in the Washington Post, in which Senate Republicans admitted that the plan is to rubber-stamp their acquittal of Trump, and their lack of desire to even try to dignify this travesty of justice by pretending to hold a real impeachment trial, as the Constitution demands.

Senate Republicans want to hold “a short impeachment trial early next year that would include no witnesses,” the article explains, because they believe “it would be better to limit the trial and quickly vote to acquit Trump.”

The reason they believe this is no mystery, of course. As the impeachment hearings in front of the House have showed, Trump looks guiltier with every minute of discussion on his scheme to blackmail Ukrainian leadership into falsely branding his presumed 2020 opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, as a crook. Even when Republicans called witnesses during the impeachment hearings, those witnesses ended up giving testimony that made Trump look worse. When the GOP called a legal “expert” to critique the impeachment process his testimony was a confusing mishmash that only made the pro-impeachment witnesses look stronger.

Trump radiates guilt at every moment and with every public statement. So the only way for McConnell to conceal his guilt is to throw a blanket over the whole thing. Continuing to argue about it, even through the Republican methods of throwing tantrums and creating distractions, isn’t really working — Trump’s behavior pierces through all the noise like a laser stream of pure, red hot guilt. Looking away and refusing to discuss it as much as humanly possible is the best available option for Republicans.

Trump was reportedly interested in staging a big spectacle in the Senate trial, and calling Hunter Biden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, the original Ukraine whistleblower and who knows who else. For once, Republicans may defy him, but only to safeguard his presidency.

It was pretty much overdetermined that McConnell was going to go this way. He doesn’t even bother to hide that he is a soulless robot programmed only to accumulate power and hang onto it. Even the pretenses he throws up to justify naked power-grabbing — such as his ludicrous claim that he couldn’t bring Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee up for a Senate vote in an election year — are thinly argued, with a side dose of snickering at the media suckers who report his obvious bad-faith claims with a straight face.

McConnell doesn’t bother pretending to be fair for the same reason House Republicans shamelessly lied throughout the impeachment hearings, and for the same reason Attorney General Bill Barr is shamelessly lying about the FBI investigation into Trump’s collusion with Russians during the 2016 election. Nearly to the last person, Republicans have convinced themselves that the Democratic Party — because it has a racially diverse base and is majority female — is inherently illegitimate.

That’s what all this fake reverence for the founding fathers (while denying the legitimacy of the Constitution they wrote) is about: Institutional longing for a time when only well-off white men had a say in government, and everyone else was denied the right to vote. Well, they can’t take away universal suffrage, but they can do whatever it takes — cheat in elections, gerrymander legislative districts, suppress the vote, finance a fascist propaganda apparatus like Fox News and shield offenders like Trump — in order to devalue or eliminate all votes that aren’t cast by white male conservatives and their wives.

All of this is why it was ultimately a bad move for Democrats in the House to move through this impeachment process so quickly. Instead, the House should have taken the advice offered by multiple writers and pundits (including myself): Impeach Trump for everything impeachable he has done.

I get the rationale behind going more rapidly. This entire process has been exhausting and demoralizing, because Republicans have a bottomless willingness to lie, usually while working themselves into shouting fits of fake umbrage. There was good reason to believe the public might get sick of the impeachment spectacle, and Republicans have done everything in their power to make sure that happened by behaving like the biggest assholes humanly possible while the cameras were on, so that only the most masochistic of us could sustain the ability to keep watching the hearings.

So I sympathize with the desire of Democrats to minimize their own exposure to spittle-inflected rage-fests from Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., or to lifeless recitations of Fox News conspiracy theories from Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif. But keeping the hearings going, and delaying a House vote on articles of impeachment, was the only way to keep this whole thing out of the Senate, where McConnell is prepared to shoot the impeachment process in the back of the head.

McConnell wants it over quickly because he knows that Republicans aren’t doing themselves any favors by being the absolute worst at all times, even that strategy that works to scare off TV viewers.

So Democrats would have been better off soldiering through the misery and opening up the impeachment hearings to more of Trump’s criminal behavior. Just this week, he had to pay a $2 million fine for stealing from his own charity. That story got buried in the news cycle, thanks to impeachment. If Democrats had made that part of an impeachment article, there’s a not-small chance that even Fox News viewers would learn that Trump had pretended to raise money for veterans that actually went toward his own campaign.

Democrats could have also used the impeachment hearing to bring more attention to the numerous allegations that Trump has sexually assaulted and even raped women. Trump has been relentlessly disparaging his alleged victims from the Oval Office, which is as much an abuse of power and witness intimidation as when he did it to witnesses of his Ukrainian extortion scheme.

Instead, Democrats are handing the reins to McConnell, who will immediately, shamelessly and unapologetically drive the whole thing over a cliff. Trump should have been forced to sit through months and months of public testimony regarding what seems to be an endless stream of crimes, all while spinning more out of control and slurring his way through hate-filled rallies. Realistically, there was no other way to punish him or to keep his crimes at the center stage. By moving so quickly, Democrats surrendered most of their power.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-s ... eir-power/
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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I disagree that "By moving so quickly, Democrats surrendered most of their power."

Also, the author has no idea what the Dems have up their sleeves. GOP is transparent. Dems are waiting on some court cases about IRS and tax records. I cannot imagine there aren't a dozen big Trump scandals waiting to be unleashed in the next year. This impeachment may just be the start of something interesting.

Everyone knows what will happen. The Dems would have lost voters or suffered in Dem primaries if they hadn't impeached. Get it done fast, impeach Trump, and move on. By November, only Trump will be screaming and crying about it if anyone even remembers. Do you remember the last scandal one year ago?

Wednesday 12 December 2018, longtime Trump aide Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, for crimes including lying to Congress and making illegal payments to silence two women who alleged affairs with Trump. Cohen said he was directed to make the payments by Trump – directly implicating the president.

After promising to shut down the government over his border wall, Trump flip-flopped, and the White House suggested it would find funding from somewhere else. Trump’s base let him know they didn’t like that idea, so Trump said he would shut down the government after all. And he did.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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mrcee12 wrote: Thu Dec 12, 2019 11:05 pm I think Democrats are moving quickly because they know Trump will follow up this stupid Ukraine mess with something stupider.
I agree. I think they already know what it is, but are keeping Trump on the defense. Remember that second, separate IRS whistleblower? Or, they might just keep going after the underlings one by one. Or, more Russian GOP campaign money might be surfacing.

Something will happen.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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Minor fireworks. Hilarious, though. GOP thought this was going on all night, but Dems shut it down until tomorrow after 14 hours of "debate". GOP was ticked off about having to work tomorrow and called it authoritarian. I guess they've never had real jobs?

And, Rep. Matt Gaetz criticized Hunter Biden for his addiction. Then he got called out for his own DUI arrest. :)
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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Depends on how the rules are written but it's being stage managed from the WH. Would not be surprised if after House managers and Trump's lawyers present their cases that there is a Senate vote on impeachment and it's over, no witnesses or evidence presented. Impeachment is a political process run by the legislative branch, it's not a court of law and justice is not the goal. This has been pushed by the progressive wing - the never Trumpers who poo pooed Trump in 2016 saying no one would vote for him and Trump had the last laugh. They are so certain that even if Trump isn't removed that they'll win next November after impeaching him, I wouldn't bet on it.

Polling on impeachment and removal, it's even. Those pushing it probably never look at polling, after all everyone they know hates Trump so the polls must be wrong. Echo chambers...
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epoll ... html#polls
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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After the ReTrumplicans "acquit" Trump in the Senate, the House should immediately bring MORE Articles of Impeachment, forcing MoscowMitch to yet again deny evidence and watch pressure build on Class II Senators up for re-election--like Mitch.

There's enough on Trump for 75-100 Articles of Impeachment, and the House should keep bringing them!

And, if, SOMEHOW, the Dems reach 67 Senate seats, then they should Impeach him again on January 3, 2021, and then bar him from ever holding office again. Also to stop any additional mischief between Jan 3 and Jan 20th! And then Impeach ALL the incompetent biased judges in one fell swoop.

Never been done? Well, MoscowMitch and the orange catastrophe have broken every precedent, every privilege, every courtesy, leaving none remaining, and the BEST thing to do is clean house. So what if Ox Noise screams "UNFAIR!"? If Breitbart and InfoWars fuss. Tough shit. The Constitution is simple "The House...has the Sole Power of Impeachment" and "The Senate has the sole power to try Impeachments" Use it if you have 67 votes! Certainly McConnell and Boehner would have impeached Obama if they had the 67 senate seats, and all 4 Liberals on the Supreme Court.

They have no limits, only they insist Dems must respect the limits they themselves ignore.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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YankeeTarheel wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:00 pm After the ReTrumplicans "acquit" Trump in the Senate, the House should immediately bring MORE Articles of Impeachment, forcing MoscowMitch to yet again deny evidence and watch pressure build on Class II Senators up for re-election--like Mitch.

There's enough on Trump for 75-100 Articles of Impeachment, and the House should keep bringing them!

And, if, SOMEHOW, the Dems reach 67 Senate seats, then they should Impeach him again on January 3, 2021, and then bar him from ever holding office again. Also to stop any additional mischief between Jan 3 and Jan 20th! And then Impeach ALL the incompetent biased judges in one fell swoop.

Never been done? Well, MoscowMitch and the orange catastrophe have broken every precedent, every privilege, every courtesy, leaving none remaining, and the BEST thing to do is clean house. So what if Ox Noise screams "UNFAIR!"? If Breitbart and InfoWars fuss. Tough shit. The Constitution is simple "The House...has the Sole Power of Impeachment" and "The Senate has the sole power to try Impeachments" Use it if you have 67 votes! Certainly McConnell and Boehner would have impeached Obama if they had the 67 senate seats, and all 4 Liberals on the Supreme Court.

They have no limits, only they insist Dems must respect the limits they themselves ignore.
More trials would keep him busy tweeting. I still think there are some bombshells being held back until the fake Barr report on 2016 drops. I also expect cluster bombs every month until November.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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Trying to impeach Trump a second time is just pure politics and feeds into the right wing tripe. There are actually two votes possible in the Senate. The first vote is to convict and remove, if that is in the affirmative a second vote is a lifetime bar on holding federal political office. The second vote is by majority, not 2/3rds. Hypothetically if Trump was convicted and removed but not barred from political office, Republicans could nominate him again and he could run in November 2020. It's a very, very long shot.

Dem US Rep Alcee Hastings was a US District Court judge nominated by Jimmy Carter and confirmed. Later he was impeached for accepting a bribe and convicted by the Senate and removed. Years later he was elected to the US House and still sits there.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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highdesert wrote: Fri Dec 13, 2019 6:37 pm Trying to impeach Trump a second time is just pure politics and feeds into the right wing tripe.
So what? Democrats spend far too much time worrying what Republicans will think and say, while Republicans don't give two shits about what Democrats will think and say.
EVERYTHING Democrats do is labeled "Pure Politics" and is used by the rw tripe!

So make the most of it and keep REVEALING Trump's hundreds of impeachable offenses. Keep 'em busy fighting it off while more and more comes out.

We KNOW that 40% don't give a shit what Trump does. He could be found naked on the White House lawn forcibly sodomizing a screaming little boy next to a dead, raped and sodomized girl, and they would STILL cheer him on and vote for him. We know that. They cheer him dissing a 16 year old. They KNOW he loved walking in on the naked and half-naked Miss Teen Universe contestants. They KNOW he's been credibly accused of tying up, violently raping, and then threatening a 13 year old. They KNOW he has sexually assaulted well over 60 women. THEY DON'T CARE! THEY WILL ALWAYS VOTE FOR HIM!

But others, who voted for him just because they HOPED he was better than Hillary and are not fanatical will care. Maybe they won't vote for a Democrat, but maybe they'll stay home. More importantly, it says to the LIBERAL base "We won't give up!" How many Benghazi and eMail investigations were there? How many "Fast & Furious"?

The liberal base needs to be energized to get off the couch. What happened in 2017, 2018, and 2019 is great but it isn't enough! Republicans ALWAYS attack--they attack weaknesses, but also strengths--remember the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth", attacking John Kerry's record as a war hero?

There are actually two votes possible in the Senate. The first vote is to convict and remove, if that is in the affirmative a second vote is a lifetime bar on holding federal political office. The second vote is by majority, not 2/3rds. Hypothetically if Trump was convicted and removed but not barred from political office, Republicans could nominate him again and he could run in November 2020. It's a very, very long shot.

Dem US Rep Alcee Hastings was a US District Court judge nominated by Jimmy Carter and confirmed. Later he was impeached for accepting a bribe and convicted by the Senate and removed. Years later he was elected to the US House and still sits there.
Yes, and Thomas Porteus was only the third Impeachee to get the impeachment "death sentence"--barring future office holding. You may be right that the 2nd option is only a majority vote. The Constitution doesn't specify that.

There have been, I believe, 19 Impeachments, with 8 convictions, all Federal judges. But also a Supreme Court judge, 2 Presidents (if you don't count Nixon), a cabinet officer, and, weirdly, a US Senator (in 1797).
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: The Senate impeachment trial of Trump will be a total sham as Democrats surrender most of their power

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The impeachment was necessary to keep non-Trump voters engaged and so Nancy doesn't lose her precious "moderates" to progressive primary challengers.

The GOP claims every loss is a win. They lie about everything. It doesn't matter what they say or think.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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