I have no immediate preference as regards Democrats and Republicans but consume American news.
I do not keep track of national politics in the country I am from and once lived in, but I do keep track of US foreign policy news. The words of the US President, they have weight. His comments on domestic politics are sent around world, and they carry weight. He may not know it; they affect others not of the United States. Mr. Trump has interesting views and he should both be good at talking and express his original ideas cleverly, and should give an ear to reasonable criticism. I largely support him, and if a woman is voted up to that position will give her good thought, as well. I would like Trump to stop being involved in the political scenes until his heart stops; perhaps he will not really be impeached.
1
“If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost"
Adam Schiff said it all!!!
73
Notorious Trump may be on a so called "trial," but the absence of witnesses and evidence, this trial is a puppet show controlled by Republican Senators who reached their level of incompetance long ago.
A "trial" is defined as "a formal examination of evidence before a judge, and typically before a jury, in order to decide guilt in a case of criminal or civil proceedings."
How this country and the world became the audience of such a ludicrous puppet show, is beyond me.
44
Maureen, thanks for this. It seems you missed the tweet from the chief thug this morning, letting his minions/henchmen know that he wants Schiff to go through some things. Schiff "hasn't paid the price, yet." I asked Twitter to shut down his account. Looks too much like the sorts of threats we have come to expect from our president. Shameful. It's not doubt that once he knows his power is secure, he'll actually put heads of those who cross him on a pike.
So, no, the voters who wanted a thug to shake up Washington didn't get what they wanted. They sowed the wind. We are all reaping the whirlwind.
Although the Dominion-ists and Rapture-ists and even some of the Right-to-lifers (and of course little Marco) all quote the bible at us to defend this thug, none of them seem to understand why people seek God in the first place. They are all in on an unjust world.
We remember appeals to God among the lives extinguished in the many who died in the Holocaust, and various pogroms and ethnic cleansings past and present. Let's not go down that road again now. It's enough that he has caged children and turned away the poor and threatened. We are next. You in the press before me in the cheap seats, but we are next.
47
Sadly ...
goodbye Democracy
and an unwelcome to tyranny -
arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority.
if this orange king stays in off ... we are moving to Costa Rica ... a sane country who believes in our climate crisis.
The orange king and his buddies are accelerating the extinction of all species ... that includes us.
39
In reference to the distracting behavior of Senate Republicans during the defense presentations, it would be interesting if some media analyst could track the incidence of those behaviors in relation to testimony delivered in prime time and not in prime time. I suspect the behavior was planned to produce an effect, rather than indicating boredom. Robert’s fault.
15
"The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox." That says it all.
What a sorry state our country is in!
I have no words except to refer every American back to Adam Schiff's 'truth matters' speech.
Surely all of us know how Fox News spins off the truth to form an unrecognizable story. Against that, I refer every thinking American back to Schiff's closing arguments.
Not only does the future of the Senate depend on this outcome, but also the future of us as a country,
Without this future, I weep for this America.
51
The Republican "strategy" is to play the part of a bored, developmentally disabled child. I am "represented" by two such Senators. Why would I contact such a person or attempt to reason with him when he is telling me that the Constitution, our government is all nonsense and that treason is nothing to get worked up about? The "Fidget Spinner" speaks volumes. If Republicans weren't so stupid, they would recognize our silence as an "ominous silence." As for the courageous Democrats seeking to move a mountain of stupidity, crime and corruption, know that we are with you. Our silence is mourning. But we are truly humbled and honored by your effort to save our country. The difference between right and wrong could not be more clear.
64
Last I checked, Lev Parnas is not and has never been a high ranking official in the State Dept., so I really don't know why Trump would be asking him to fire her when he told Parnas to: "Take her out, O.K.? Do it."
Ambassador Yovanovitch and any daring Republican senators likely have Trump's short attention span to thank for the fact that his threats - like Michael Cohen's - don't always come to fruition, though the threat to Stormy Daniles suggests and the surveillance of the ambassador by a Trump wannabe suggest they do at least have sharks circling the victims of intimidation.
The president of the United States used to recognize citizens' - much less senators' - right to freely express opinions other than his own and even to vote them. If Republicans can't see an abuse of power when it is directed right at them, it's hard to see why they should be entrusted in keeping our constitutional order intact. Is this what over 40% of the voters want? Is this what some gun owners think was the reason for the 2nd Amendment?
Oreilly: "He's (Putin) a killer, you know."
Trump: "Well, there are a lot of killers. You think we're so innocent?"
Trump is simply making the world safe for the Russian mafia ....
29
The New York Times reported that the content of the newly released tape of a dinner conversation did not offer any substantive new evidence in the case. Listening to the tape, i found it feasible that as a follow-up to the comment that “...she thinks you’ll be impeached”, which drew laughter from the guests, that Mr. Trump was relaxed and being ironic and intentionally sarcastic about his power with the guests. This impression is strengthened by the fact that the comment drew even more laughter from the guests at dinner. If the President was serious. actions would have commenced almost immediately. However, no actions were taken as a result of the comment and the ambassador continued to serve for more than a year.
There is enough real evidence of Trumps real misdeeds without reaching this far.
5
I hope the Democratic Senators can be and act just as contemptuously toward the defense arguments as vice-versa. Perhaps if they brought something like spinner toys, or caught up on reading briefs for other upcoming legislation. The defense attorneys should know how it feels to speak truth to power while power is clipping his toenails, too.
13
As to the truth of things here: you read this and you still dont know.
I called my Senators every day this past week, and most days the lines were very busy. On Friday, I could not get through to the DC office and had to call locally. This is CA, of course, but the blind quote without even naming a state smacks of cherry picking.
10
Can someone please, please gather the names of the Republicans who support this president in the impeachment process, and who are running for office, so that they may be voted out of office?
15
So far, each and every one of them.
21
How can any legislator who supported the impeachment of President Clinton, now claim that the impeachment of President Trump is an attempt to "nullify his election?"
20
Anyone noticed how Trump took advise about firing an ambassador from someone who couldn’t even remember her name? That’ll show them rubes.
14
I can't stop imagining mansions bought by Trump's minions around the world.
4
On the same day that Lisa Murkowski stated that “he lost me”, she wrote and published an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News in support of the military and veterans. She evidently has excused Trump stealing 2.4 million dollars from wounded veterans including wounded first people veterans in Iowa in 2016 (see, story regarding settlement of Trump Foundation fraud case, NYT, Nov. 16, 2019). She, as her companion Senator Dan Sullivan,enjoy strong veteran support, even though she doesn’t even condemn a politician who steals from veterans. This episode should have resulted in a third Article to accompany the Articles I and II. Republicans should remember this episode, have to defend it, and have a poster stating that they support grifters who steal from wounded veterans everywhere they appear publicly.
32
The reason for the apparent apathy toward the trial is rooted in the valid belief that Trump is guilty, but the Republicans will vote to give him a pass. There is no drama here. We like our politics dramatic. Challenge this belief in a pre-ordained outcome by allowing witnesses and watch the ratings go through the roof.
10
The republicans are knowledgeable of the fact that democrats don't act like them or think like them. For most its not a zero sum game of domination and power. So when the wheels of democracy eventually return democrats to majority in the congress and retake the presidency McConnell et:al will be counting on there not being payback time. The question they should ask is will the precedent set by D.J.T.'s abuse of power & authority become the norm for presidents of both parties. The republicans have sold their own congressional power out to the chief executive & that more than any other reason is why they should hold Trump accountable. If he can do it then anyone can do it, or if you like, what can be done to others can be done to you. Power is not forever, its a lesson that Moscow Mitch needs to learn before someone else teaches it to him.
23
@John Chastain: I find Trumpism a comprehensive dyslexification of reality. It is not sane.
14
Among the many lasting results of Trump's reign are the new words or phrases that come from his inner circle into our American vocabulary---words which mean the opposite of what they seem to mean. Republicans are expert in hiding the truth. To the "alternative facts" of Kellyanne Conway we now add '"truth" [which means keeping something bad you did secret] as when Trump's lapdog LIndsey Graham barked, " What he [Trump] wants to do is get to the truth".
10
A very sad but true commentary of American society of 2020. The final summary, "But the more impressive the Democrats’ case is, the more depressing the reality becomes. They want to convince themselves that character matters. But many Americans knew they were voting for a thug. They wanted a thug who would bust up Washington, and they got one.
The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox.", unfortunately is very true.
I would have said, "The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on alternate-facts." Probably "never the twain shall meet".
8
There is only one silver lining to Trump's misrule: We now know exactly who the Republicans are. They cannot go back to their old "small government" coverup. They are coconspirators in a criminal enterprise. No, they won't be charged with that crime, but in a just world, they would be.
39
The Democrats are losing. They are not going to get rid of Trump, they are not going to get witnesses.
There is only one person at this point who might be able to turn the tide: Joe Biden.
Mr. Biden should call a news conference and announce that he and his son would be willing to testify in exchange for having John Bolton and whoever else the Democrats want to testify as well. This Ukraine affair is going to dog Biden especially if he becomes the nominee. Let him put himself on national TV answering questions from Trump’s lawyers once and for all. If he is clean, then he will be rid of this stain forever and perhaps Bolton and the rest might say something that would sink Trump. If the Republicans refuse then they clearly are hiding something.
Think about it.
11
Have Ms. Dowd's readers ever heard of the 1st Ward Ball? It's too long (and sordid) a story to recount here, but to put it simply, at the turn of the 20th Century Chicago's 1st Ward had two aldermen, "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and "Hinky Dink" Michael Kenna, because there was simply too much in the way of corruption payoffs, or "boodle," as they called it back then, form the Levee, the 'legalized' red light district in that ward, to justify it all going to one politician. And in order to reward the madames, gambling parlor proprietors, dive owners, and all other vicemongers who had paid them for protection all year, Hinky Dink and the Bath held a big blowout called the First Ward Ball at the Coliseum every winter, where prostitutes were put on parade in their finery, or not as the case may be, and every vice imaginable was on open display. It was openly condemned by the press and some of the more respectable citizenry, but others of them gleefully attended and it went on for years unimpeded.
Will something like the First Ward Ball go down at Mar A Lago after Trump's acquittal, and each and every year after his ill-gained re-election? With the Republican Party giving him carte blanche to do anything he pleases while sitting as president, I think you can count on it - and the Republicans shall continue to fiddle as America burns.
12
It is the Democrats who will emerge from this Mitch McConnell/Trump jointly choreographed sham Senate trial with the political advantage. If enough Republican senators vote to allow witnesses, these witnesses will reveal to a national audience that will finally be PAYING ATTENTION Trump's lies and noxious actions. If they don't vote to allow witnesses, then the Democrats will just have to keep claiming COVERUP.
Yeah sure Trump's base won't listen, but some significant portion of undecided voters will hear the obvious truism that the innocent don't need to hide the evidence. And not just Trump will be damaged, so will vulnerable Republican senators who voted for this manifest coverup.
9
I called my two senators, Todd Young and Mike Braun, every day last week.
The next ten days or so are absolutely critical for peaceful protest against this NO Witnesses/NODocuments/No JUST trial sham.
Don't wait for the rallies to be organized in major cities.
Protest on your own town or city streets, at the entrances to parks, etc. Just keep it peaceful and on public sidewalks and you won't need a special permit.
Make your signs.
Don't wait for somebody else to do it.
Don't listen to people who say it's over.
It ain't over till it's over.
Don't tell yourself you have a job and kids and you're too tired to protest. Do it anyway.
Make your signs; protest every single day of the remainder of this
POTEMKIN VILLAGE trial. Make your signs and plant them everywhere.
Would Martin Luther King, Jr. have given up and sat writing cynical columns about the apathy of Americans?
He faced much, much worse and HE kept going.
NO Witnesses.
NO Documents.
NO justice.
26
I know America will get thru this, but what will remain? Will The Executive branch have been able to gain more Power? Will congress now be less of a balance? What have we allowed this country to become? I guess we all will have to waitand see what History shows. One thing is a Fact The Dignity of the office has diminished by a load of tweets that are often are a embarrassment.
5
"One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. “Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.”..."
The House has at 56-60+% of the country behind them. Who exactly are we supposed to call? Who am I supposed to call here in Missouri? Josh Hawley?? Does anyone believe Republican legislators are listening? We're watching as aptly as anyone could. Who else are we supposed to call? The Mitch-GOP-Busters?
12
A reckoning will come to the Republican party for willful ignorance, but will that reckoning be in time to save America?
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
― Saul Bellow
2
Do you truly think Nancy Pelosi would initiate a losing battle for impeachment without also having a clear and winnable political objective in mind?
The clear goal was to tie up all the other major candidates so as to give Biden clear sailing in Iowa.
She miscalculated because Biden is mired in the Senate Chamber.
2
After the Access Hollywood tape was released, Republicans had a moment to save their party. They didn’t. Instead, they embraced the pornstar scandal president and the fix was in. There is no dignity in the GOP now. They are sycophants, nursing the fragile ego of a President who knows at his core (after all, he had Michael Cohen threaten harm to any school that released his academic records) that he does not belong in the Oval Office. His trampling of the Constitution will be what history notes, that the system of checks and balances that have worked for the nation for so long is now irreparably broken.
9
(to state the obvious) Republicans have to choose between serving our legal structures and the American people, or serving dictator Trump.
11
McConnell et al should keep in mind that an acquittal which is the result of a sham trial (no witnesses, no documents) is not exoneration. It is not a declaration of innocence.
O.J. Simpson was "acquitted." But the great majority of citizens know he was guilty of murder. Trump used the power of his office to extort Ukraine for a personal, political favor.
A recent headline may very well say something about Trump's defense: "Trump hires Jeffrey Epstein's lawyers."
12
Republicans appear to be under a spell of mass hypnosis. A Democratic manager lays out a clear-cut line of evidence, with documentation and testimony delivered under oath, and the Republican retorts "Where's the evidence?". It's mind boggling.
8
I would just like to say, if it's worth anything at all anymore, that he should be impeached on the grounds of his criminal thuggishness alone. He has made what are very, very clearly death threats against several people. He hinted unmistakably that the whistleblower should be executed.
He said Ambassador Yovanovitch would "go through some things."
Now it's come out that he asked his goons to "take her out."
I gasped when I heard he had said, "Take her out." I hope she has very, very good personal security.
Yet this hasn't seemed to make much of a stir.
Folks, those are death threats. Those are literally death threats - I am not using the word "literally" in its postmodern ironic sense. Those. are. death. threats.
Is it okay for the president of the United States to make death threats?
To this small extent, Bret Stephens (also writing today in the Times) may be right that Donald Trump may not in fact be the worst president any of us could imagine. The worst may be yet to come, if Donald Trump is - as he will be - judged by the Senate fit to remain in office.
17
They're defending a rigged economy that gives them all the monied updoots while stripping the rest of any benefits, by rigging our democracy, suffocating it with sham processes.
That's all.
Voter suppression, the gerrymander, black-box voting, court stacking, nomination theft, a 24/7 propaganda smokescreen, evidence withholding, witness tampering, witness gagging, witnesses left uncalled and witnesses left unquestioned, cover-up, sham trial, obstruction of justice, you name it.
All to get that corporate welfare for their puppet masters, tax cuts for the rich only, and deregulation of their fraud and predation.
They are willing to commit crimes for that, so they get the crimes done and then defiantly proceed to protect their tribe turned mob.
Additionally, just to make sure they win, the criminals have placed themselves in the judge and the jury seats as the perfect ICE-ing on their 2020 have-it-all cake.
They look us straight in the face, even as they hide and misrepresent their crimes inasfar as their incompetence can pull that off, and tell us to "Take that, so much winning," then proceed to further pick our pockets by abject market and political power abuse.
"Take that?"
Really?
America, where are you?
We know where your receipts went.
We know 'your' DC always went with where the deceit went.
We cannot let that stand.
We cannot let it all end.
America, where for your own and for the planet's sake are you?
9
Just think. If the US melts down, it was because faith Trumped reason.
9
This sham reverse show trial is another disgusting illustration of the dark side of human psychology, the "as long as its not me" syndrome. Just doing my job. Just trying to stay out of trouble. Just trying to keep the focus on someone else, as long as its not me. Just as long as I get to keep my perks and seat and money and car and house and trips and .....
Never has one party worked so hard to sell out the American Dream. To deflate and defeat the US Constitution. To give the finger to dignity, duty and country.
We see you GOP. We will remember this forever.
12
"But many Americans knew they were voting for a thug. They wanted a thug who would bust up Washington, and they got one."
Indeed. And this what it all boils down to.
9
Clinton was impeached for lying not for using his power. Lewinsky knew exactly what she was doing and has built a career out the enshrinement of her tawdry adventure with a known womanizer. If Americans really cared about infidelity would donnie have even been elected in the first place? His crimes dwarf Bill's bad habits.
DJT has lied over 16,000 times yet his toadies bray that he's looking for the truth. When the Titanic went down help was not far away but the curvature of the earth prevented the signal from reaching aid from another ship. We are likewise on the wrong side of a curve and we're going down. The GOP already occupies all the lifeboats.
10
To the congressional staffer who said, “Our phones aren’t ringing, nobody cares”, please know that plenty of us do care. But we have learned that it doesn’t do any good. Repeated attempts at contacting my congressional representatives have resulted in responses that often do not even address the issue. Oftentimes they respond with boilerplate language reiterating the incumbent’s overarching view of government in general and nothing addressing the specific subject. Nor can I bear to watch this trial live since very few of the jurors seem interested in hearing the facts and instead telegraph their predetermined verdict by body language, etc. So, in the interest of not raising my blood pressure, I read about it later. Based on the facts I’ve heard, I’m fairly certain the president is guilty. However, I would be very interested in hearing from more witnesses. But the president would not allow them to testify before the House and the GOP has made it clear that they are unwilling to call for their testimony during the trial. They have, as a body, also made it clear they will find him innocent. So I ask, what is an ordinary citizen to do during this process? Our government has failed us, the brilliant system of checks and balances our founding fathers established has failed us, the electoral college has failed us. Is it any wonder we seem apathetic? Perhaps a better description would be impotent.
7
Sad. Alexander Hamilton felt confident about the Senate "in its own situation, to preserve, unawed, and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality between an individual accused, and the representatives of the people, his accusers." We today do not feel the same confidence in our Senate. Political expedience becomes more prized than moral courage. Part of the "Negative Two's" is learning the meanings of yes, no, right, and wrong. Republican Senators apparently have forgotten these life lessons.
3
Section 4 of the constitution of the United States states, "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Quid pro quo and bribery are the same thing. Trump tried to bribe the Ukraine to uncover dirt about Hunter Biden. He committed an impeachable offense, bribery, pure and simple. The Republicans are fools to ignore this offense.
5
I have watched the final twitching of America's Democracy. I was moved and impressed by Adam Schiff and Hakeem Jeffries. Yesterday I have seen the reflex of the Reichstag fire in 1933.
13
"Get rid of her." "Take her out!" These were the chilling words that Trump used in a recorded chat with volunteer henchman Lev Parnas. And the ambassador was soon told in a chillier phone call to go back home for her " security." The imperative phrase "Take her out" is no longer a coded expression. It's from the mafia rule book on how to deal with enemies.
Besides unanimously voting yes on DJT's impeachment, Is there anything else the senators really need to recommend prosecution of DJT of a serious crime in a regular court of law?
11
So where does that leave us Maureen? Clever closing line but as empty a sentiment as I have ever heard. The people who voted for thugs are thugs themselves and are a threat to our way of life. The time to fight for this democracy is now and not find a pat clever line to exit this god awful mess. I love your columns but this one leaves me ready to wonder what happened in Germany in the thirties. Did every one, even the ones in the press we rely on throw their hands up and say if you don't know now you now? This snarky tolerance of the of the unacceptable is worse than Trump. Proclaim a call to action.
10
@ Viv - The Chief Justice admonished both Impeachment Managers and Trump counsel, not just Congressman Schiff. Too bad Chief Justice Roberts didn’t admonish Republican “jurors” for playing with spinners while he is presiding over an impeachment trial. I wonder if he would tolerate that conduct when presiding over Supreme Court arguments?
Not by chance, but by possessing great diplomatic skills, Ambassador Maria Yovanovitch spent a distinguished 33 years in the Foreign Service stationed at some of the most difficult posts in the world until she was the victim of a smear campaign engineered by the Trump administration. While she was serving this country, the thug in the White House was hosting beauty pageants and a “reality” show.
4
Actually Maureen it's just the opposite. The Republicans are relying on facts ..... the Democrats on MSNBC. And if character is the test, Mr. Schiff should look in the mirror.
3
Me. Dowd,
Your assessment was spot on, and now I’m so depressed I don’t think I can drink my coffee.
2
Savage, Ms. Dowd. I doff my cap, I suppose...
I sat at my terminal (apt word!) for many minutes, trying to find the proper response to your column. Nothing came.
Well, not at first.
W.S. Merwin, RIP, gave me the words I lack:
"You confide In images in things that can be Represented which is their dimension you Require them you say This Is real and you do not fall down and moan
Not seeing the irony in the air
Everything that does not need you is real
The Widow does not Hear you and your cry is numberless
This is the waking landscape
Dream after dream after dream walking away through it Invisible invisible invisible"
2
I am appalled that there are only 235 comments (as of 11:30 Denver time) to Maureen's column, especially after Shiff's fine lauded speech on Friday.
Reminds me of the Iraq "war" soldiers' statement to the effect that "while we are in Iraq, Americans are in the mall..."
Where is everybody? Or is this a statement of our low confidence that this trial of tRUMP will turn out any different than any of the other myriad attempts to obtain some accountability from him?
Pathetic. Sign me SAD.
6
Why should Dems expect a flood of phone calls? Callers would be preaching to the choir. You can't email Congress-persons if your ZIP code is out of their district, so how are they to know how voters feel nationwide? Be millions of people do care and are fearful. But the "fix" is in. DJT will be acquitted & will continue his "reign of buffoonery". November come thou soon. Meanwhile, pray that DJT doesn't... well, who knows?
Oh... the "head on a pike" threat? DJT couldn't have said that. It has an historical reference and History is not His strong suit. Remember his speech about our (Continental) Army "taking to the air? and taking "the airports"?
4
Threats of "heads on a pike" are essentially jury tampering. Will his enablers become accessories to further crimes?
8
On the bright side: What could be more energizing for the Democratic Party in the 2020 election than a unanimous acquittal from every Republican Senator?
4
“One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. “Nobody cares. “
That’s actually good news.
1
Please note that all the republicans/trump have is smearing the prosecution. All they will do is impugn, sneer and throw scattershot. ANYTHING but address the dates of those emails! Rudy's big mouth and trump's own words.
When all you have left is 'they're just mean and stupid', you've lost. I cannot believe these grown men, so on fire for trump! They display a zealotry for his feelings that would be impressive were it displayed for truth, justice and the American Way.
The republicans are enraged at this process. What does that tell you? When an entire political party unites in rage against their constitutional oath, something really emotional is going on. IT'S POWER AND MONEY.
Putin promises trump untold oligarch wealth for the rest of his life. trump tells Mitch about the offer, and it's too good to pass up. Putin just happens to benefit from every act this administration takes. When given the same offer, oligarch-wanna-be republicans do a desperate dance to pretend it's all very American.
Watch for trump to suspend parts of the constitution in 2020, as his odds of election victory go up and down. And the party of Soviet Collaborators will have another decision to make.
But Oleg Deripaska is there to catch Mitch should he fall. His wife's Chinese billionaire family will be well cared for. For repubs, it was a good swap, America for oligarchy.
3
We are becoming a banana republic. The slogan should be MASA , or make America small again.
4
When our founders vision of a democracy is reduced to little more than a smoldering wreckage, will the many Americans who "wanted a thug who would bust up Washington...", appreciate or understand their complicity in that outcome, or the resulting consequences for themselves?
6
Where's the great victory for republicans coming-in for a win off a rigged playing-field?
Real victories come from an honestest test of skill and ability, not cheating bending of the rules ...
The repubs are a travesty and will be found-out eventually, after which no one will want to play in their ball yard!
After such self-serving duplicity, none will be voted into the hall of fame either ...
Hopefully, they are dropped from the record books and are left to languish in historical obscurity ... !
2
Sekulow asked: “Why are we here”?
A classic. “Let’s rehash.
Let’s focus on the evidence.
The rest is balderdash.”
The evidence? It is all there.
There was abuse of power.
Obstruction of congress. Both not fair
and actual crimes. How dour.
It’s all on tape. Our President
acting “estupido”.
He is not even eloquent
as he states his quid pro quo.
But Sekulow, he does not know
why his boss was impeached!
Republicans put on a show.
A real low they’ve reached.
It’s politics. Just get a grip.
We do it all the time.
And Moscow Mitch believes he’s hip
in spite of all the slime.
Just wait for the elections, Mitch,
you will be history.
Two more will end up in a ditch:
Trump and your GOP.
5
All of which begs the question, why are there so many reasonably prosperous white people who are so full of anger and rage that they choose to be loyal to this lying, bloated demagogue?
There is a very deeply ingrained sickness in the American Body Politic, the kind of sickness that could eventually lead to a great deal of civic unrest, violence and perhaps even civil war.
Removing Trump this November is only the first step. We better figure out what steps 2, 3 and 4 should be, or we'll only end up with another Trump in the future.
6
Ya, so if I believe the Republicans, “who” then, and “when” then, and “why” then, was a hold placed on the aid?
3
When our founders vision of a democracy is reduced to little more than a smoldering wreckage, will the many Americans who "wanted a thug who would bust up Washington...", appreciate or understand their complicity in that outcome, or the resulting consequences for themselves?
4
I'm sorry but I can't fold into Ms. Dowd's sense of futility and surrender. The Democrat's case is so shot full of truth that, even if witnesses aren't called, the creek is on the rise and it can't be dammed up with artifice, misdirection, distraction, or moral blindness. The truth, ultimately, is the thing that matters.
8
This is what a coup looks like. If he is aquitted (which he will) he will never leave.
6
For the GOP and MAGA hat wearers: "I know things are getting tough when you can't find the top from the bottom of the barrel" You are the bottom of the barrel. And for the public at large. "All I know is that I don't know, all I know is that I don't know nothing"
(thanks to Operation Ivy for those quips)
1
Adjacent this op-ed is a piece detailing Trump's defense team - each of whom carries such putrid baggage that Adam Schiff should distribute not spinners (such an ironically fitting gift that was!) to his Democratic colleagues, but those masks pollution masks.
1
[For Mitt Romney,] "Revenge is a dish best served with milk."
Every once in a while Ms Dowd makes me smile. Can't stop smiling this time.
2
From a quick search of the "Head on a Pike" story;
""CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidante said that GOP senators were warned: vote against your president ... and your head will be on a pike," Schiff said."
From these recent news reports, I wondered what a pike was until the Europe reference made it clear, but........
Here in my state, it's real hot. A pike is an old term going back hundreds of years that means a road, and everyone travels on pikes. I do believe my people here, your people here, the American people of have been threatened with violence by the subject in question who conveyed that remark.
I took careful note of Trump's agitating the gun owners in Richmond last Monday knowing his obvious threat of conflict.
Perhaps even as I fear for my family's lives after they were threatened by the Mafia and dad was murdered, you consider putting my life to print to stop the situation. I've always held the nation's welfare and peace in the highest order of priority, but now we should risk it all on a gamble that the truth will serve justice because the authorities won't or can't. Consider this permission to publish the truth as you know it.
1
These next few days will be distressful as we have to listen to the lies and half-truths of the defense in the impeachment "trial". I fear it will end quickly without a vote on witnesses (who wants to hear more of the truth?).
The Republicans are cowards. Even Susan Collins is calculating in her responses so far.
And then we will forced to watch Trump crow at his State of the Union address. I sympathize with the Democrats who were profound with their impeachment presentations have to sit during another ugly Trump speech.
November can't come soon enough.
2
Re: the head on a pike rumor - who doesn’t believe it’s true? Even if it’s an ugly image and an exaggeration of what was actually said? Trump will crucify ( just a figure of speech ) any Republican who dares to cross him (i.e. votes for witnesses and or documents to be introduced to the sham Senate proceedings.) I refuse to call it a trial, for obvious reasons. The disingenuous outrage of the GOP Senators is hilarious and pathetic ( see Claude Raines faux shock to discover gambling in Rick’s gin joint in Casablanca. ) Minus the roguish wit, of course. Hypocrisy can be entertaining in fiction. In the Senate, arguably with the future of the Republic in the line, it’s disgusting. Schiff’s call to the consciences of GOP Senators was a nice try, but he might have well have asked dogs to do math. It ain’t going to happen. We’re about to witness the biggest miscarriage of justice since OJ got away with murder. Then as now, the dream team is giving the jury the fig leaf it needs to vote the way it has intended to ever since the charges were brought against the perp. What a disgrace. The GOP is giving in to its apparent desire to become little more than a criminal enterprise bent on defending The Godfather at any and all costs. It’s a nauseating show to watch.
3
"But many Americans knew they were voting for a thug. They wanted a thug who would bust up Washington, and they got one."
Does anyone really believe this, apart from Washington punditry? The voters of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan were interested in deconstructing D.C., out of obscure political science motives? Please. Race matters. And gender. Let's call it like it is. Not a rap lyric, but Shakespeare had it right: "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.'' This is what needs to be addressed, not (yet another) apologia for thuggery.
2
The impeachment will not happen nor will anything change. This con-artist has taken America to the lowest depths and there seems nothing we can do about it. You may say that we can vote him out in November (that's if he is voted out), but it may take generations to repair (if at all) the damage this wannabe Godfather and his crime family has inflicted upon a once proud nation in a little over 3 years. Giving him another term will turn America completely into a banana republic.
7
It’s so sad to see Dems begging and crawling and whining and hoping and squealing about witnesses and hopes about removing Trump. So sad. Dems sure know how to waste the public’s money and time. I hope they don’t live their personal lives committed to losing causes and arguments. So so sad
1
"White House counsel Pat Cipollone lied during the Senate impeachment trial when he said Republicans were not allowed in the secure briefing room during House impeachment hearings. Confronted by this blatant untruth, one of Trump’s lawyers, Robert Ray, declared, 'I’m not interested in wading in the procedural weeds here.' ... Some senator should send a note up to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asking him to admonish Cipollone.” (Washington Post 23Jan2020)
6
@Earl
A big fat lobbying contract when he or she decided to retire.
1
Republicans are saddled with Trump and, consequently, pretending to believe that he's a corruption fighter when DJT's only view of corruption is as just another business opportunity. His defense team's assertion that he's "only interested in getting at the Truth" is preposterous to the point that it's believable only if you've a degree from Trump University.
2
We now have the corrupt emperor that every Empire has before its final collapse. So long, America.
1
History has not treated characters like Trump kindly. Despite his army of sycophants, Trump's reign will end soon enough. No man or woman, so narcissistic and black of heart ever lasts long. As pessimistic as I am, I truly see that glimmer of light in the not so distant future.
3
"Most Americans...wanted a thug..and they got one."
Actually, most Americans voted for someone else; Clinton, Stein or that Libertarian fellow.
More importantly, most Americans don't vote for ANYONE; they vote AGAINST the alternative. And if the D's nominate a candidate who is not a registered Democrat but a Socialist, Trump will win again. Count on it; not in New York or California, but in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
6
Your irony in this farcical show to protect the criminality of Trump is appreciated. But to do so, one must be interested in the truth based on evidence. And do we have plenty of that, however distorted by the republican sycophants, deeply aware of their self-deceit, and supporting the unsupportable, a deeply ignorant bully (by choice, hence, malevolous). These are the same G.O.P.'ers that knew candidate Trump was a 'weasel' and spoke clearly against him...until they realized he was going to win (assaulting the presidency with Putin's assistance); at which time, their allegiance switched supportin him, a most hypocritical and self-serving move we have come to resent and will most assuredly repent from. And now, even after the Senators have been sworn to impartiality, we all know that republicans shall behave in unison as a loyal tribe and exonerate a 'criminal' they despise in private. If this is not a circus, with plenty of 'clueless' clowns for history to judge, what is it? Who are we, when our conscience lost the ability to tell 'right from wrong'?
1
“One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. “Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.”
Of course nobody cares!! The most “boring” thing in the world is to watch a contest, game, or in this instance an impeachment trial where the fix is in and the outcome was determined before proceedings started. What’s to watch!!!
Everyone thinks he’s guilty or everyone thinks he’s not guilty, depending if part of Trump’s Base or if part of the left. But that makes no difference either. The rift in our country makes that of the Grand Canyon look puny in comparison!
The big fix is in and the unconscionable, ruthless master fixer is McConnell....an arch villain worse than Trump (in my opinion!)
So, people have returned to watching daytime soap operas!! Much more entertaining than the on being put on in the Senate were ending is known!
1
When reading your op-ed piece and viewing the Republican defense of Trump today, I kept asking myself: "Why do I continue to pay taxes that supports these deadbeats and funds their rich benefit and pension packages?"
This reader, an 80 year old that has voted in every presidential election since John Kennedy was elected, was once very proud to be an American. Our family has been very proud and revered the two exceptionally patriotic members of our family that lost their lives in service to our country during WWI and WWII; and we are very proud of our oldest son, a Marine Corps officer that served in Afghanistan and returned home to suffer through some serious orthopedic surgery.
However, I am no longer proud to be American; and I no longer think that paying taxes is a patriotic thing to do. Trump and the toady Republicans that continue to defend Trump's indefensible conduct has extinguished the pride I once had in being an American.
I thought Nixon was corrupt, but there were noble Republicans in his day that refused to defend his conduct. Do we now have any courageous and noble Republicans in the age of Trump. Am persuaded that we taxpayers are enablers of corruption. Why are we continuing to pay taxes that supports all this idiocy?
4
"human fidget spinner himself"
that is right up there with last weeks "perv barrel"
You summed things up beautifully again this week Ms. Dowd.
Nice to get a little chuckle during this demoralizing time.
The Dem's are relying on character and facts.
But integrity is not at stake. Trump does not have any.
Neither do his underlings, the Republican Senate.
Nor his legal team.
I just wish Dems would allow themselves to get a little bit, or a lot more vicious and dirty, as they are fighting not just thugs, but junk yard dogs.
1
Do you truly think Nancy Pelosi would initiate a losing battle for impeachment without also having a clear and winnable political objective in mind?
The real jurors are the persuadable center and center right voters. Voters which are generally difficult for Democrats to capture in general elections. Voters whose heads Trump can’t impale on pikes.
Therefore we will not know the true jurors’ final verdict until the November election results are counted for congress and the presidency.
“And if you don’t know, now you know.”
1
The Republicans have FOX and SINCLAIR and the Dems have Rachel and Leonard and PBS. Not nearly enough.
You cannot counter 24/7 support for lies. You cannot stop voluminous amounts of junk news to people who watch only those networks. They do not read, they do not buy books.
If there had been no FOX, there would be no Trump. If there were no SINCLAIR there would be no "base". The Dems should just purchase a network (if the FCC would allow that) and put as much money and effort into is as Murdoch does.
There is no cure for stupid. The show in Congress is very hard to watch. Everyone knows Trump will be allowed to go on. No matter how much the Dems present their case, even if Jesus could appear (unless Trump blocked him, of course) the GOP would remain bored, knowing the decision was made long ago that Trump was going to continue.
I wonder if there is any force on earth that would cause the Republicans in Congress to CARE about what is going on but then I remember that no one in the country cares except the few Democrats who read this paper or watch MSNBC or CNN.
In Brazil, where we are now, the citizenry mourn their country's president's behavior in the same way we mourn ours. The world is being ruled in many places by unconscious, nasty men. Woe to all of us!
3
It is shocking that Republicans' defense of Trump's drug deal is based on Trump's own obstruction of Congress. They ignore the evidence that is out there that Trump refused to release. They ignore the threat that Trump poses a threat to the fairness of the election coming up and the urgent need for impeachment and removal NOW. Instead, they cherry-pick the record the Democrats were able to get, and ignore that "everyone was in the loop" about Trump's drug deal (Guiliani, Trump, Mulvaney, Bolton, Pompeo).
They are accomplices in the obstruction of justice. They are as corrupt as Trump himself. How they can live with themselves is a mystery. As Ms. Dowd sayd, they must have Fox News propaganda where their brains and conscience used to be -- Zombies for Trump.
1
Deep suspicion that mankind is at bottom just a beast might have kept the rebellion from turning into a real revolution and eating more of its children.
Deep suspicion that mankind is at bottom just a beast definitely kept slavery in the constitution. Ask Jefferson, who let his own little beast take over after Martha died.
Maybe the latter, and that pesky racist electoral college anachronism that's been festering in there since the founding, now trumps the former.
Ironic if it were Bismarck's, not Franklin's, quip that predicts the failure of the state:
"God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America."
Luck may finally be running out.
I don't get why Roberts allows the absolutely disrepectful behavior of the republicans.
Honest to God, what's up with that, Justice Roberts?
You have proven yourself to be a joke.
3
Schiff and Down hoisted on their reliance on an anonymous pike.
2
Republicans are also relying on "lawyers" like Cipollone who started today with this
They are asking you to do something very dangerous. They are asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election, they are asking you to remove Trump from the ballot in 9 months. They are asking you to tear up the ballots and take that decision away from the American people.
Amateur Hour
1
Shiff was brilliant. New Yorkers and others who live in liberal enclaves will remember. So there are 50 corrupt, complicit Senators Washington, now. Votes in November can bring an end to this disgusting regime and those who turn a blind eye to its wrongdoing.
2
I am sick and tired of talking heads on MSNBC speculating on which Republican Senators might vote for testimonies and documents.
Why should any of them flip - unless they have a political death wish? Vote for witnesses and documents and Collins, Romney et al will have a Trump bulls eye on their backs. So, persona non grata with the Republicans? Poison to their Democrats constituents?
Can you guess which way the so-called "moderates" will vote?
2
For republicans, this has always ever been about their right-wing agenda: kill Roe; save fossil fuels; gut Obamacare; bolster the banks, oust the "other"; make men matter most; eliminate gun control; keep Christ in Christmas. They have or will shortly achieve it all. Nothing. else. matters. No one. Else. Matters. This is indeed all a game, and they have won handily already. It may sicken many people in this forum, but unless he actually murders someone, the Notorious DJT is going to be with us until 2024.
4
I believe I owe Republicans an apology.
Thousands of lies and crude remarks from Trump, and never a hint or a whisper of objection from them.
Now along comes Schiff with his head-on-a pike remark, and suddenly they are up-in-arms and full-of-objections to it.
I never understood before now how sensitive Republicans are.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/25/21071035/senate-republicans-adam-schiff-head-on-a-pike-comment-outrage
5
It certainly is comforting that Lindsey Graham wants "to get to the truth."
3
Shout out to Doug Mills for this haunting picture of Mitch McConnell. I will have nightmares after seeing the babadook.
1
These GOP Senators should be featured on a new reality TV show: “The Bored Corrupt Lawmakers of Capitol Hill”...
2
Ms. Dowd nonchalantly views the wreckage of the Senate from the visitors gallery and glibly files another preamble to nowhere. The only outrage we get is from Lindsay Graham.
Yes, Ms Dowd, the fix is in. With these kinds of lukewarm articles, trump doesn't need Fox.
1
This is about the kangaroo court scenario Trump lied would happen if Hillary Clinton were president.
Let’s drain the swamp indeed.
Vote out Trump, his corruption, and his enablers in Congress.
2
For the GOP senators and the evangelical followers of this corrupt and undeniably evil president:
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36 King James Version
I ask you men and women of the GOP: search your heart and mind and ask yourselves what is a moral man or woman, for what do I serve my country?
1
Any chance the Senators can vote by secret ballots? Any chance CJRoberts can subpoena witnesses and/or documents? Otherwise it is not a trial...Also, what's with Mr. Pompeo's temper tantrum...hmmm...could he be worried of his cover being blown...
1
If I were Mitt Romney, I'd remember how Trump humiliated me by dangling a job in his administration and then BAM!snatched it back publicly.
Gee, I'd vote to impeach him in a Utah heartbeat and wait for everybody to congratulate me as a man of courage. Then, if I got voted out of office, I'd go home to my millions and my family with my self respect intact. Just no more putting the dog on the roof of the car.
2
Maureen, read this article (from the NY Times):
by Josh Blackman (Jan 23, 2020)
Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/opinion/trump-impeachment-defense.html
Even though this article elicited 2838 comments in a few hours, the Times took it down as soon as they realized it wasn't producing the response they desired. They didn't just remove it from the headline stories, you couldn't find it in any of the sections.
3
The difference between Republicans and Democrats can be divined from the first thing that comes out of the mouth after reading this:
"It's OK to investigate Donald Trump while he is running for president, and, it's not OK to investigate Joe Biden while he's running for president."
Democrats: "Correct"
Republicans: "Incorrect"
There is no middle ground and there will never be agreement.
2
Of course we did not call democratic senators; we don’t need to call them. We needed to call republicans and tell them to vote for documents and witnesses. And we did.
3
Most Americans couldn’t care less about politicians, Washington, DC, so called “ elites” or opinion writers. They are interested only in their family, jobs , financial security and health. That’s the way it is, Ms Dowd. Maybe you don’t understand America. Probably too late now.
2
@Bob Baskerville
Disagree.
During the twelve years that I attended public school in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, the following concept was reinforced over and over.
“The success or failure of the American experiment in constitutional republican democracy rests on a solid foundation. Fairness. Equality. Equal justice under the law. Religious freedom. The rule of law. The U.S. Constitution.
“However, underlying all of these is the true base of our democracy — the wisdom and common sense of the American People.
“Each of you will play a part in determining whether our democracy succeeds or fails.”
It is a lesson I’ve never forgotten.
1
Enough clever headlines, snarky writing, silly comparisons. This is our government falling apart, representatives failing their constituents, citizens believing lies, even a Supreme Court Chief Justice ignoring reality because he’s all in for his team. This is one of the saddest weeks in our history.
5
Depressing reality! A straight party-line vote will certify the totally corrupt state of American politics.
4
Republicans who do not toe the line will find their lines being towed.
So toadies they must be.
2
Adam Schiff just got knee capped. His running of this impeachment is proving to be as bad as Nadlers handling of Mueller testifying.
2
"Get rid of her." "Take her out!" These were the chilling words that Trump used about Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in a recorded chat with volunteer henchman Lev Parnas. And the ambassador was soon told in a chillier phone call to go back home for her "security." The imperative phrase "Take her out" is no longer a coded expression. It's from the mafia rule book on how to deal with enemies.
Besides unanimously voting yes on DJT's impeachment, is there anything else the senators really need to recommend prosecution of DJT on a serious crime in a regular court of law?
5
thank you. I seriously can't understand why more isn't being made of this. the meaning is very clear.
1
President Donald J. Trump will offend again and again in his petty juvenile vindictiveness to get even for his forever stain of Impeachment by the House of Representatives. This President is a certified “Clear and Present Danger” to the United States of America and our democracy as we know it, and Republican majority led United States Senator’s are his enablers. May they each pay a well deserved heavy price with their ouster in their respective re-election bids later this year, depending on their ability to place country FIRST rather than their political party affiliations, and vote to remove this proven lawless guilty president and stand up for our fragile democracy under assault from both foreign and domestic perspectives.
Imagine for a moment if in the 2018 midterms, the United States Senate had also been flipped by patriotic Americans from all walks of life, our long Donald J. Trump disastrous nightmare would finally be over.
Proud to be a Democrat.
Onward!
2
It is difficult to understand that this "stable genius" is "president" of a country with nuclear weapons.
3
Ouch, too much dark cynicism, Ms. Dowd! Here is hoping the American character comes through. I have faith in fairness and justice. And Mr. Schiff has been revealed as a man of moral courage. You should try some moral courage yourself, Ms. Dowd, instead of your tired and cynical rhetoric that serves no purpose. Dig?
3
Diligent impeachment coverage listening and watching has provided interesting, instructive, even historic moments over the past few days. For example:
1. Adam Schiff, the would-be perpetrator of "the most massive interference in an election in American history" (according to Pat A. Cipollone, believer in the if-they-accuse-you-accuse-them-back approach) pleaded heroically for moral courage before a twiddling aggregate of milk-sober lawmakers, much like Mr. Smith when he went to Washington, although it was not milk being drunk in that movie.
2. The Commander in Chief, who, if we believe certain sources, refuses to wear a condom when entertaining a prostitute, proclaimed, "Unborn children have never had a stronger defender in the White House." (Note: if strong defense has not been provided in one area, it is certainly good to proclaim it in another.)
3. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lost his head after being asked uncomfortable questions by a female journalist. Could it be Pompeo was first in his class only because there were no anger management classes at that particular institution?
But stay tuned. There is still much to know and much to learn.
2
And, finally, Ms. Dowd, ends with the truth I have been struggling with: a sizeable number of our citizens love thuggery---that in reality civilized behavior--democratic behavior---was merely a veneer that was easily wiped away by a thug wannabe.
7
Where--and who--is Mifsud (speaking of character in office)?
But you know that.
1
The Republicans should just cut out the middle man and nominate, FOX 2020.
“Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.”
If you allow a leader to be above the law, eventually that statment is going to become not a metaphor, but a literal statement of fact.
4
If we American do not march en masse, protesting this senate trial as a shame without witnesses, then we are all complicit in our abdication as citizens when it come to removing a con man from the Oval Office.
The Republican senators acting like bored idiots may not realize they're posing for campaign commercials for the other side. Each spinner, crossword puzzle, paperback or cat's cradle will provide footage for their opponents forever.
So will some of them chucking up talking points, especially if something else goes pear-shaped: "'It's not our job to do the House's work,' " the senator told us. H.she was more interested in his/her word jumble than finding out if anything was wrong."
Democratic candidates for state offices should recycle such visuals into ads highlighting our country's need to reinvest in civic education.
1
Come on Ms. Dowd. You glossed over one of the truly great speeches in American history.
You continually nitpicked Obama. Gave Trump a pass while you flayed Hillary.
Yet here we are again. I know he is a democrat, but how about a little recognition for the brilliance of Adam Schiff. You are a brilliant writer. I don't fault your conservative leanings, but you have an objectivity blind spot when it matters.
5
Says Maureen: “The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox.”
Which sums up the main point: propaganda works. It’s been used successfully for millennia, and now Fox, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube videos, and paid Google Searches have made it invincible.
3
Notorious V.S.G. (very stable genius) will go on raging. He's about as stable as Rudy.
3
So the Gross Old Party embraces a new hashtag:
#Character Doesn't Matter
2
Well maybe we need another 4 years of Trump to finally destroy the GOP and McCONNELL who wants to be in power for life and a democrat prez will need to deal with our deficit and lack of allies around the world. Trump feels all America needs is Trump so when he is gone all is lost and the GOP expects to thrive with their old white men base is ludicrous.
So how does this scheme work? Henry Kissinger was famous for observing that he always seemed to have an attractive woman on his arm because "Power is the best aphrodisiac." So all these Republicans imagine themselves to be studly white guys who are sexy and desirable. What woman wouldn't want them? This is low hanging fruit for a Russian agent who just happens to be a bombshell.
Once compromised, these guys are told the facts of life. "We can ruin your life; your wife will divorce you; your kids will hate you, and you'll have to resign in disgrace. Or..."
"We can make you a rich man. All you have to do is make sure Trump remains in office. If you do nothing more than that--handing over state secrets would be nice but totally unnecessary--we will wire $1 million into an account of your choosing each month that Trump remains your president. So what's it gonna be? Utter humiliation or financial security for your family--it's your choice."
Putin sits back and laughs: "A mill here, a mill there--I can do this all day long. This is a much better investment than blowing $10 billion on a nuclear sub."
It just strains credulity (mine, anyway) that these once proud men would kowtow to a twerp like Trump. It's worth considering another explanation for their weird behavior.
1
Ms. Dowd:
The below article, in your own NY Times, outlines the most probable trajectory of politics for the next 40 years or so and why.
https://nyti.ms/2GlZ0C0
Republicans will remain in power as their base wanes in population. Potentially, like Margaret Atwater's Gilead, declaring the constitution invalid as the population of the Pub's base wanes significantly.
What can we can do when one segment of the population is weak and afraid, but, cynical and smart enough to gerrymander their way to power?
This is one of Obama's legacy outcomes. He was just a little too asleep at the wheel in 2010 when the Pubs began more aggressively creating their own Gilead system through gerrymandering algorithms.
And, Obama further supported a future Gilead when he allowed Mitch McConnell to ignore the constitution and not confirm any of his judges for nearly two years.
Ms. Dowd: Pubs are moving toward their own ideal. A Christian theocracy supporting a single population demographic.
Margaret Atwater was just the first to see the path forward in the mid 1980's when the Pub theocratic movement began under Reagan.
3
Excellent piece.
I find the Democrats' hypocritical, and pretend somber, rhetoric in this impeachment to be utterly nauseating.
The only thing the impeachment trial makes clear is that Adam Raytheon Schiff is the most malignant political operator since Roy Cohn.
Not only does he (strongly in favor of the illegal regime change coup in Ukraine) and Democrats lack moral authority for impeachment (no torture prosecutions), the reason for the impeachment is totally disgusting and illegitimate.
The US helped overthrow an elected leader in Ukraine and replace him with a US/NATO lackey, then the Democrats complain that Trump interfered with military aid to the lackey government?
This is beyond appalling considering how many real crimes, including war crimes, are committed by our elected officials and not adjudicated or even admitted.
This impeachment farce make clear that the Dems are indeed now, officially, a wholly owned subsidiary of the CIA/Military/Industrial Complex, having supplanted the Republicans in their traditional role and this impeachment trial is not so much about convicting Trump as it is about indoctrinating the American Herd into believing that Russia is a terrible menace and we must go to war against Russia.
3
The trial that has been taking place in the Senate is also an indictment of the spineless Republicans who have been humiliated over and over by Trump, and they still ask for more. You just shake your head at such a display of public masochism.
3
The GOP Senators easily follow the long tradition of red state all -white juries who ignore the evidence to acquit the white guy no matter how guilty he is (or convict the black person, no matter how innocent). They have no concern for truth, justice, or our founding principles. They are there solely to affirm white supremacy and maintain GOP power.
2
All if what Ms Maureen wrote is true. But it isn’t in this context.
I can’t stand Donald Trump. But after 2 years and an army of investigators trying, the Muller investigation was done with no smoking gun. Then came the Horowitz investigation with the revelation the FISA court was not given all the facts-which is being generous about what he really found out. I have no more stomach left for what we are going through a third third time.
I do not doubt what our side is saying this President did regarding the Ukraine/Biden call. But I’ve come to believe he wanted all of this to happen. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue.
Donald Trump isn’t the idiot I thought he was. He’s made his righteous opponents concerns invisible to at least half of the voters. And once the Senate votes the way we know it will, if we continue with a forth line of attack I honestly believe he could sweep the election.
Americans have this sense of fairness that’s not always predictable. And Trump seems to know that.
"But many Americans knew they were voting for a thug. They wanted a thug who would bust up Washington, and they got one."
Explore that.
Why did they feel that way?
Against whom was that directed?
Is the target still there, and still doing it?
How many Americans STILL want to bust up Washington?
How would they react to a status quo, center-right "moderate?"
How did they react to that last time?
Why are the Republicans so afraid of a President Pence?
What is in the name "Pence"? Pen Common Era.
I should think not!
Stop the WALL.
Adam Schiff for President! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
5
Maureen, you are a gifted, thought provoking writer and critic of this Democracy. But, please, stop giving Adam Schiff the kudos he certainly does not deserve. He’s a very, very dangerous man. We, as Americans are in the same place we were in 2016. Vote for Trump because you hate HILLARY. Now we are hating what the Democrats are doing, but don’t like Trump any better. The Democrats have been outwardly vicious, have had a mission to oust Trump...long before the Ukraine, phone call, etc even happened. Do you think that’s Democracy? No...it’s politics!! And, the Democrats play dirty and lie as much as Trump. What a sad thing for this country.
2
@Susan. Massachusetts
Trump is indeed a "thug" as Maureen Dowd says. Thugs run with other thugs...i.e. Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Gates, Stone, Papadopoulos, Vand der Zwaan, Pinedo, Parnas, Fruman........all indicted with connections to Trump. Our President is a crook. Impeachment is the least he should receive.
3
"They wanted a thug who would bust up Washington, and they got one."
They may have gotten much more, including a trashed constitution. Without the constitution, all those touting the second amendment will no longer have any right to bear arms. It will only matter who is in power whether they can keep their beloved weapons. The 'boss' can turn on them in a minute.
When the most truthful man running for the Democratic nomination is not included in the little video above your piece, it doesn’t surprise me Democrats continue to lose ground. And your newspaper promotes one, who as of 1996 was a Republican, who recently took a swipe at a man both sides view as honest, not to mention he has a better voting record than some Democrats? Completely unbelievable!
Voters who supported Trump knew they were making a deal with the devil. That they were electing an amoral deal maker who would give single issue voters what they wanted and did not care what else Trump would say or do.So the rich got their tax cut . The evangelicals got their conservative judges. Many Jewish voters got unwavering support for Israel. The gun crowd got to keep their guns. The pro life crowd got Trump support and in person. The anti-Muslim anti immigrant gang are very happy also. Trump has recognized that the great motivator is self interest. Four more years.
1
The picture here says it all. Another guy in the parade of guys you wouldn't date in high school. The whole defense team is a tableau of men from the Stephen Miller factory of smarmy guys no one would talk to. I guess this is how they get even. Apparently Incels don't just mow down people on the street, they can also mow down democracies. Good on MM for at least finding and offshore wife...but I will note they don't have children. Turtles can lay hundreds of eggs per season.
Her quid pro quo as to Democrats vs Republicans is weakened and made spiteful by the analogy of Republicans and Fox. C’mon Mo, you can do better than that!
1
I’ll make a prediction: Within a week after the craven, spineless GOP acquits Trump, he will be on the phone with Vladimir Putin, plotting the disruption of the 2020 election.
W. L. Valenti
Portland, Oregon
1
It’s the entire GOP on trial.
Non one cares because it is tedious and seems like a minor matter. Presidents have always used their influence against opponents. It’s the playbook. The fact that it involved Ukraine makes it even more laughable. The media,which no longer can even claim to be journalists, is simply reprehensible in its bias. Maureen, as they used to say, let me pull your coat to something, you are in a vast left wing conspiracy.
One of your best columns Maureen. Thank you.
1
Maureen, read this article (from the NY Times):
by Josh Blackman (Jan 23, 2020)
Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/opinion/trump-impeachment-defense.html
Even though this article elicited 2838 comments in a few hours, the Times took it down as soon as they realized it wasn't producing the response they desired. They didn't just remove it from the headline stories, you couldn't find it in any of the sections.
2
Want TV rating get witnesses.
2
Let's stop referring to this as a trial.
Refusing the presentation of documents and witnesses is a cover-up, not a trial.
Like Trump bragged, "...but honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material."
#SenateCoverUp
2
Maureen, alas, there were many instances of the Praetorian Guard secretly colluding and then murdering the Emperor. Caligula comes to mind.
The Democrats are panicked because the corruption of the Obama Administration is going to be exposed; Obama took money from Iran, Biden from Ukraine and China, and Clinton from Russia. Ed Koch said it best "Follow the money"
1
I’m buying a new Porsche!
1
Just like Cohen was dragged down by Trump, and then left to rot, the Republican party is being pulled into the abyss. No matter what the outcome, it ain't gonna be pretty.
2
R. I. P. to “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.”
4
Make way for the “alternative facts”.
Republicans have worked furiously to spin out an alternative universe to muddy the waters and attempt to confuse the American people.
“You’re saying it’s a falsehood, and our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that,” Ms. Conway said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Alternative facts” are better known as lies, and with this administration, lies are as valid as facts.
Lying is the new coin of the realm.
Beware.
2
On a more positive note: Adam Schiff.
Bernie, have you been watching this guy?
This is so depressing.
Despite his imperfections, President Trump is better choice than the socialists candidates offered by the Democrats.
2
Like Nixon, it is not the crime, but the ‘cover-up’, that will seal Emperor Trump’s fully justified removal from office!
1
I hear all the arguments regarding what the framers meant when they defined America. I have read much of their writing and I know that law was to be defined by the wishes of their new country's citizens. I know the second amendment was written to protect conscientious objectors from the wrath of their fellow citizens when they refused on moral grounds to take up arms. It was written in English not legalese and the only reason for lawyers was to muddy the waters.
The Impeachment defense is being watched by the world and when Trump is acquitted 53-47 the only thing for sure is those looking to create a fairer and more just world will no longer look to the USA for leadership. Our biblical legends have always been based on the truth of our bible being allegorical, true for all time not a moment in history.
I read of this moment in Louis Ginzburg's classic work legends of the bible where the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed not because they were evil but because they tried to justify the unjustifiable.
God tried Her hardest to spare Sodom and Gomorrah but when Sodom's Sekulows and Cipollones got to the microphone even God herself couldn't justify not destroying the absolute corruption and immorality.
1
In spite of the Democrat managers’ brilliant presentations, the GOP Hair Dye Squad is going to figure out how to blame the whole lurid affair on Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or Millard Fillmore. As with many career criminals, Trump will slither out of this morass seemingly unscathed, but he will have left behind a country that is a shell of itself. He essentially started the Cold Civil War, and is snickering while Washington burns. Character does matter, indeed, but in this case the only character who matters is the orange nemesis in the Oval Office. America made a terrible decision installing this fraud in office; the Senate is about to make another horrendous decision when they acquit him of high crimes and misdemeanors. The coup is succeeding, and we will pay the price for a century or more. Abject angst prevails. Woe is us.
3
“You don’t realize how important character is in the highest office in the land until you don’t have it,”
The same holds true for the House and Senate. Lindsey Graham abandoned his a long time ago, Jim Jordan by all accounts never had it, Devin Nunes doesn’t know the meaning of the word, and Susan Collins frets and frets before ultimately doing the right thing...for Susan Collins.
2
“The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox.” Now that’s “perfect”.
1
Perhaps the Democratics could play for the Republicans:
Jim Reeves
He'll Have To Go
"Put your sweet lips a little closer to the phone
Let's pretend that we're together, all alone
I'll tell the man to turn the jukebox way down low
And you can tell your friend there with you he'll have to go"
2
April 2018 - Furman records hour long video of Trump at a donor dinner "Get rid of her "
July 2018 - In Helsinki, Trump says he trusts Putin saying Russia never interfered in 2016 election contrary findings of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies. Trump meets with Vlad in private for 2 hours with only an interpreter attending.
April 2019 - Trump's sycophants spread Putin's false narratives that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election and the Bidens were involved in corrupt Ukrainian actions.
July 25th, 2019 - President Zelensky inquires about a meeting, purchase of Javelin missiles and status $391 million in aide approved by Congress in February. Trump responds by asking for "..a favor, though...". The call transcript is buried on a secret server but Trump's phone short summary shows his solicitation. In 2017 and 2018, Trump didn't withhold Congressional aide to Ukraine or raise corruption concerns. Later the GAO states withhold aide is illegal.
July-September, 2019 - Numerous White House staffers and State department personnel ask why aide is being withheld and many report concerns to White House council.
September 2019 - A whistle blower report, ignored by A.G. Barr, surfaces defining Trump's Ukrainian scheme to withhold aide in exchange for 2020 election interference.
Trump eventually releases aide but still has not met with President Zelensky.
Jan 2020 - Pompeo states to NPR reporter - "Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?’
2
I remember the Nixon impeachment, back in the days when Republicans understood Russia (as well as the other Soviet "Republics") wished us nothing but harm. Having a Russian sympathizer in the White House was their worst nightmare.
Now there is a man openly conspiring with the Russians in the Oval Office-- and they're protecting him from the consequences of his guilty actions!
I've voted for "good" Republicans sometimes before. Now I wouldn't vote for a Republican for dog catcher. It's got to be all blue, all the way. It's our only hope to save the country.
3
Have you heard the audio recording of the guy in the White House? We are way past any hope of him leaving anytime soon. He is "the boss".
2
Why doesn’t Schiff run for POTUS? He certainly has the right stuff.
5
Trump is like the really bad boyfriend your parents warned you about and forbid you to see...the republicans just have to stay with him no matter what the evidence at this point. They have to save face no matter how shameless he is, no matter how much of liar and a cheat he is, no matter the consequences. The more the Democrats show them evidence of his deeds the more they cling to their "but I love him mom" defense. Republicans are more than willing to follow their man into the abyss.
1
“But Americans knew they were voting for a thug.”
Isn’t that really the crux of the problem? We got exactly what we (apparently) asked for, got what we deserve. Is it time yet to admit that this is America? Those of us who object, those of us who deny and decry the truth are, in the end, just kidding ourselves. We lost. Donald Trump is the true character of America, incarnate.
1
The Trump WH's "head on spike" threat is the formal invocation of Fascism. It is the US version of the "Night of Long Knives".
The Senate's Republican and Supreme Court Chief Justice's capitulation to Trump is a dress rehearsal for Dictator Trump, who will either declare a state of emergency to suspend the 2020 election, or claim that the election was "rigged" or hijacked and remain in Office.
When will the US press corps wake up and warn the American people to what the KNOW is going on? We've lost our Republic, folks, and are under the spell of a Fascist authoritarian.
3
Watching a bit of the presentation this morning, it was clear the Defenders are not presenting the facts of the timeline. They are still claiming Ukraine didn't know the aid was withheld, but on the same day as the "prefect"call, our government got two emails from Ukraine asking why it was held up! Ask Laura Cooper.
So if this is the way it is going, our Senators really ought to be frightened that the Corrupt Cronies are coming for them next, just as Schiff warned. UP is Down, 2+2 =3.
This is the part of the trial that is the false sham and embarrassment to the American people. Collins is interested because she is under threat here at home. How will she wiggle of getting her own self investigated?
Well, Corrupt Cronies may be coming for us down the road, but l last I checked am still allowed to vote in an election, and you can be sure I will try my best to Save the Republic! with my one scrawny vote!
2
Depressing to me is the fact that the Dems decided to impeach the D for a relatively trivial offense - sorry, but very few Americans, even those who despise the man, genuinely care about this - just a few short years after they gave George W. Bush a free pass on the patently criminal invasion of Iraq, which, if you don't know, directly killed 250,000+ people, burned $2T, and permanently wrecked our reputation across the world.
Pelosi missed her moment to make an epic impeachment fail against the Republican evil-machine in '06. I believe the Dems' collusion on, or at a minimum failure to meaningfully oppose, the Iraq disaster led us directly to where we are today. And where is the Nancy anyway? Israel? Huh.
I'm just finishing the book, The Impeachers, by Brenda Wineapple. It's is a comprehensive look at the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. My biggest takeaway: The self-interest, double dealing and lack of caring about anything but party and power is nothing new. Even the "few good men" who tried to do what they thought right never really lost sight of their own interests. Sad commentary on the ability, or lack thereof, of most people to rise above themselves and do what is right. Trying to hang on to hope, but feeling pretty discouraged.
Maybe the Democrats should just skip the State of the Union.
1
Conspiracy theories about unusual strategies of the leader--why the mysterious hallow?!
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court needs to be called on the carpet for allowing the use of fidget spinners by the jurors in his courtroom. Try whipping out one of those things the next time you're on jury duty and see how well that goes.
3
Senetor Romni should cast his vote against trump, what he is afraid of ?
He is safe until 2024 , trump will be gone by then unless sooner although trump is taking a cue from Putin who has decided to stay in his position for ever.
by the way, Putin is fit while trump is an overblown unhealthy old man.
1
The next time I am called for Jury Duty I am going to use the "GOP Senator's" position: In criminal court: "Nto guilty based solely on his and my own stupidity." In cvil court, will reward the least worry party based upon my NOT knowing (or caring to know) the factual aspects of the case. I would guess that LAWYERS everywhere would love me!
1
I object to trump being called the Notorious DJT. He is not good enough to bear the same moniker as Ruth Badger Ginsburg or the Notorious B.I.G. for that matter. Call him Trump the Cruel, the Cheat, the Liar, or the Thief, but don’t sully others with that reference.
1
All the Democrats' evidence and all the Democrats' documents will not put a Senate trial together ever.
Trump haters before name calling D.J.T. as notorious should just listen to the defense team of the president shred the case of the house managers, piece by piece and then make fair minded assessment.
1
On November 3rd America will have the final say about this sham of a trial. Send these Republican senators and their corrupt president packing. Come on America - rise up!
3
Most of these people need the paycheck. So talking back is a no go.
Especially Mulvaney and Pompeo. What of Marsha Blackburn? What is Graham going to do back home? Where would Rubio be?
Understandable, after all, it's a high paying gig with real perks.
But how to explain Romney, a guy in his 70's, thoroughly insulted, humiliated and emasculated, with a couple hundred million dollars in the bank. Very odd.
3
By refusing to bring Trump to justice, the Senate is rendering itself obsolete. They are now puppets instead of representatives; and this first point of order is defining themselves as sycophantic lackeys. Congratulations, GOP- you are now "legislators" of nothing at all: just empty suits saluting your demented emperor- until he decides to get rid of even the hollow show of a Congress.
2
More than Trump, the G.O.P. is on trial here.
3
For quite a while, we have seen Donald Trump acting like an insecure child. He uses playground insults and nicknames, lies incessantly, refuses to take responsibility, and acts the aggrieved and disadvantaged billionaire. Trump has further dumbed down our debate, but even worse, he has led Republicans who defend him, and those around him, to devolve into the same pathetic and infantile patterns. It is truly sad to see grown U.S. Senators and lawyers, lying. side-stepping responsibility, creating false and distracting narratives, and shirking responsibility to properly do their jobs when the well-being of our country are at stake.
1
First Trump came for James Comey,
But I did not speak out,
Because I was not James Comey.
Next Trump came for Hunter Biden,
But I did not speak out,
Because I was not Hunter Biden.
Then Trump came for President Zelensky,
But I did not speak out,
Because I was not President Zelensky.
Next Trump came for Marie Yavonovitch,
But I did not speak out.
Because I was not Marie Yavonovitch.
Then Trump came for Colonel Alexander Vindman,
But I did not speak out,
Because I was not Colonel Alexander Vindman.
Then Trump came for me,
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
3
A political system that would elect an abominable man to the nation's highest office, then steadfastly enable him as he shredded democratic principles, championed hate and racism and mocked decent citizens is fatally diseased.
The death throes will begin with Trump's re-election.
We are a nation that has lost its way.
3
When the inevitable happens and trump is "aquitted"....
he will run a victory lap and begin to exact his revenge on all the Democrats who told the truth... for however long he is in office.
Rendering the Democratic party basically useless.
Obstruction will be the accepted white house behavior.
The 2020 election might be the only way to stop the USA from becoming a dictatorship.
I am a lifelong Democrat and fear for the soul of America.
3
lot could not find a single good man in the city of gommorrah, not a single republican senator voted to impeach trump. should put the fear of god into the american happy clappers
3
The American Revolution, redux, is on. Lets stop playing otherwise. We choose: 1. be an oligarch.
2. be an obedient-compliant peasant, and do not risk suffering and murder by 1. above.
3. develop a "high-value" skill, and have lots of things, so you can appear in the mirror, and believe, you are better than peasants.
4. Live free or die.
1
Does this trial remind anyone else of the worst manifestations of "Southern justice"? The outcome is assured before the trial even begins.
2
I've been brainstorming the "Head on a pike" story for hours. It likely originated from the mafia. Things are happening more frequently now.
What is going on here is beneath the Real and Original Notorious B.I.G. and it hurts that the memory of one of the greatest lyricist in history has been involved in this in way. Now I was okay with people using the moniker to describe The Notorious R.B.G. because she's a stand up lady and worthy of honor. But to use it to describe that fella the White House at the moment? Well, you diminish the name and memory. Try 'The Ridiculous D.J.T.' I think that suits him best.
Elvis Lives! We'll Always Love Big Poppa!! Tupac Forever!!!
1
My hope is that young people will rise up in massive numbers and vote out these Republican underlings and their gangster boss. They see the planet catastrophe while these know-nothings fidget spin. And they are sick of the boring bored cynical tone of the established media.
3
It is time for democrats and America to accept defeat. And go gracefully. As of now, no crime of a republican is a crime; democrats are guilty by existing. This is not an outcome produced by republicans, this is an outcome produced by disengaged, disinterested Americans. We get the government we deserve, and we richly deserve this.
In November 2016, I was concerned about Kristallnacht, and heaved a sigh of wary relief when it didn't happen. Last week I saw a lot of overweight, bearded fellas in fatigues and guns all but shooting, and tomorrow Trump will be chortling through a bombastic SOU while his tribe celebrates.
I was foolish. Kristallnacht will happen because no one - and certainly not the center and left - seems concerned - not at all.
1
The trump's you-should-pardon-the-expression defense is really bread and circus, without the bread, a kangaroo court, with apologies to all kangaroos everywhere. It's is really bad teevee.
Even trump must know that. Even the lobotomized GOP senate must know that.
Ah, but, of course, it doesn't matter since nothing matters anymore. Absolutely nothing.
2
...'Lindsey Graham cleaved to his lap dog role...' 'Tom Cotton played with the fidget spinner Richard Burr had handed out...Marsha Blackburn and others left to trash the proceedings on Fox News.'
Disgustingly, this wasn't a high school assembly but the US Senate. The Republicans appeared to be playing with the 'pike.' I've seen all I need to of this SHAM and the Republican's responsible for this parody!
A little hope must have crept in while watching the Democrats the last few days, or I wouldn't feel so betrayed!
The words "you don't realize how important character is in the highest office...until you don't have it" by Adam Schiff have never been truer!
Que the people, it's time to march, petition, protest and take these Einsteins down! You are paying these people to waste your, theirs and my time AND money! Fire them all
1
Trump and his Republican enablers will go down in history as a modern day Boss Tweed and his ring of corruption. Fate did not treat Tweed well. Perhaps Trump will suffer a similar demise.
2
What would I like to see happen, Ms. Dowd? Lemme tell ya.
I may have little, if any, respect for the uber-hawk, but if John Bolton actually does have a conscience he should head on over to Capitol Hill when Boss Hog's lawyers' fairytale gets really, really deep, walk on into the Senate chamber and say something along the lines of...
"Enough of this nonsense. I'm here to tell you the truth about that 'drug deal' some people have said I alluded to, and a lot of other things I witnessed during my tenure as NSA as well. Swear me in, Mr. Chief Justice," and watch the Republicans soil their trou, etc. Enough of this "no witnesses" rubbish; it's time for some real adults to stand up and take charge of this mess, and the heck with the consequences.
3
We are planning to “reward” the Republicans and Trump at the Ballot Box if they don’t even pretend to hold a fair impeachment trial.
We’re not dummies. We know they were unlikely to convict him with a 2/3 majority required. But they should’ve at least tried to present a decent front. And it’s ironic: The GOP could’ve held a REAL trial, let the Base see the truth about their corrupt president, eased the racist out and put Pence in, which might’ve allowed them to keep their majority and the presidency… But they’re cowards and cult members.
If they thought Democrats were motivated in 2017 and 2018, let them see how white hot our disgust, anger — and motivation will be in November.
Trump and his minions will also not have their usual sense of aggrievement. They will be on a high. They will think that they have defeated us. They will think that everything is hunky-dory in Trump World. Meanwhile, Dems and ethical Is and disheartened, exhausted-by-the-crazy Moderate Rs will be organizing a rout that Trumpers cannot imagine in their low-information, fetid little brains.
1
Vote against the president = primaried = head on a pike
Every Republican acolyte of Trump’s personality cult knows that to be true.
And that fact explains why they howled so loudly against Congressman Adam Schiff pointing out the truth, the facts.
Let us hand Trump and his Congressional supporters the proverbial “head on a pike” this November.
Vote Blue.
2
I didn't know Lindsey Graham had a sense of humor. Truth, anyone?
2
Nothing new. Democrats are a joke. I hope T wins again in 2020 because America deserves him.
Yawl convince yourselves that "america is so great". But the people you need to ask are on the fringe, not the mindless and brainwashed masses. Democracy can be hacked. We have seen it in the early 20th century and we see it now.
I am sick about the number of people who say they aren't paying attention because it is "boring." Boring! This is what we have come to. Our government is supposed to entertain us. We will get what we deserve.
This eyewitness account helps to fill in the whole tragic tableau.
Shame on all those Republican Senators who aren't even paying attention and have totally forsaken their civic duty. And shame on all Americans who want a song and dance show instead of a functioning Constitution. We will get what we deserve.
3
The Republicans not only can't deny Trump's actions, they aren't even trying to do so. So, they have no other strategy except to distract, distract, distract with irrelevant nonsense like this election garbage. Trump is actively dangerous, as proven by his actions.
So why are Democrats not storming the gates?
We know that the feckless Senate will never vote to convict Trump. So we sit by helpless as the McConnell-led juggernaut rolls over the nation.
The trial has generated a lot of powerful documentation of Trump's corruption and unfitness for office. The videos and sketches of bored and napping Republican Senators as well as the ridiculous claims of the White House lawyers are going to be played and replayed on the campaign trail endlessly on the campaign trail.
The public needs to take seriously what he has done to erode our democracy. and perhaps with repetition of this visual evidence of this disgusting Republican irresponsibility, they will finally wake up to the Trump danger that threatens us all.
2
In future history books Trumpism will be equated with McCarthyism.
Meantime all I'll do is laugh (because what's the point of crying?) the next time some banana republic or tinpot dictatorship requires Americans as international election monitors.
1
They wanted a thug to bust up Washington ; but they didn't consider the criminality and further corruption that would follow thru that open door . The pain comes later ; when that expensive piece of irreplaceable china is so broken , they'll be eating off the lid of the trash can . The Republican motto win at any cost , has lost them their souls under such men as Mitch McConnell . What will they tell their children and their children after them ? As despised as the "elite" are from both sides , the thug has assured a place and legacy for them if the populace looks the other way , as honor and truth no have ceased to have any meaning . It will be more of the same on a bigger scale once a majority of this country accept , look , the other way because they have bought into the big lie perpetrated by their so called Republican leaders that nothing is amiss with this President .
1
As much as I don't want Ms. Dowd's column to be true, it's hard to shake the feeling that it is ... and, if so, where to from here?
Two kids fighting in the back of the car. Justice Roberts needs to pull over and settle this.......
2
This impeachment is not about how many witty articles you can write Ms. Dowd. It is about corruption, which is eating away at us all. Maybe you could write something witty against corruption instead of feeding off the existence of it.
The whole world is watching. America is disgraces itself. Hopefully voters will vote out those corrupt, evil Republican Senators who do not care about truth or their constituents but only their own greed.
1
Look, regardless of what you think of Trump, there are three things you must concede:
- Republicans are not stupid
- They know, we’re it not for Trump, Hillary would be President
- If they don’t stick together they will have nothing
The author of “While America Slept” was too early and chose the wrong story line. Wake Up America, before we truly become a Banana Republic.
2
Like Nixon, it's not the crime, but the cover-up, that will remove Emperor Trump.
2
Notorious B.I.G. RIP! Seems like Biggie got the last laugh. Republicans and fake Democrats aren't paying attention but at least folks like Hakeem Jeffries are.
2
I hope all the Democrats bring their fidget spinners to the State of the Union address.
3
A Trump confidant told CBS News that Republican senators were warned, “Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.”
Wow! So why were Republicans offended when Adam Schiff brought it out? Could it be that they didn’t want anyone to know what everyone knows?
1
“They wanted a thug that could bust up Washington”, and we now have a gang of thugs who are busting up our constitution. The elevation of Executive power is racing to completion, with the collaboration of the GOP Senators. I am unable to watch the impeachment proceeding in real time because it is Kabuki and a seriously tragic one.
1
Ok, Maureen, we know it’s a sham trial. We always knew and therefore are exempt from having to know now. A column delving into the twisted psyche of the GOP Senators who would presumably acquit Trump on a murder charge caught on film would serve your readership much better IMO.
1
You are my favorite Miss. Dowd!
Beautifully written, Ms. Dowd. I hope you sent your brother a copy.
1
Us lesser folks often wonder how rich and well-connected we'd have to be, to regard politics with the same put-upon jaded amusement which oozes out of a Dowd column. And that clairvoyance! The lady really knows what Bernie Sanders is thinking?
Who knew national policy and leadership had no consequences?
An oath of office still means something to congressional Democrats. But to Republicans, oaths are for suckers, and our Constitution is just another document to be ignored — like absent witnesses and testimony at a trial. They collectively behave like a crime syndicate, pledging fealty to a mob boss, doing great harm to our nation and our laws. Treasonous, traitorous and reprehensible.
2
What must it be like to live in Mike Pence's skin right now? He's watching his fellow Republicans sell their souls to the devil to keep him out of the White House.
1
I would love to see that NPR reporter on more of this case- Mary Louise Kelly. She was a wonder in asking evangelical Pompeo questions, follow-ups, follow-ups to the follow-ups, and finally had him pull her into another room, exploding with the F bomb at her and demanding that she point out Ukraine on an unmarked map, which of course she could do, and Donald Trump surely could not. It is great to see a real journalist lead these liars into exposing the wolf under the sheepskin.
3
When Maureen sharpens her pencil, it is at its best when she directs it at our national disgrace. Its drop of poison falls squarely on its target, Trump, while its deadly and corrosive toxins radiate outward to snuff out his Republican cult followers.
1
And then, Rome just ended! No one could figure it out......
1
The feigned outrage of Murkowski (e.g.) at the “head on a pike” comment belies her true character. Of *course* the Occupant of the White House would impale her or any other GOP Senator (he’s already done it to every single Democrat—nothing new there) in the Twitterverse for defying his imperial might, yet somehow in her mind it’s OK to feel righteous indignation over this comment after the endless insults and ad hominem attacks on....well, just about anybody who crosses him...for the past four years?
Um, Senator Murkowski, where was your outrage when Trump accused John McCain of being a loser for being captured and held as a POW? How about maligning a Gold Star family during the 2016 campaign? And on and on.
Ma’am, them’s what we call “crocodile tears” out in the American heartland.
3
If all this doesn’t end up flipping the Senate and ending Trumpo’s grifter hold on the Presidency, Schiff’s right, we are lost as the country the Founders envisioned, perhaps permanently.
“History...is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.”
Edward Gibbon
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
1776
2
In the yin yang universe, six men lifted the flag on mt.suribachi, and six Republicans let it fall.
3
I don't agree that they faithful Fox viewer and MAGA supporter, believes Trump is a thug. I have good friends that believe, why I still have no clue. Good decent hard working people that fit the average Trump voter profile. They only watch Fox news.
How Americans have embraced a member of the rich elite entitled class as someone who understands them is still beyond belief. Such blind faith in such a thug.
2
America deserves Trump. It proved that by re electing Bush Jr after he invaded another country for no good reason, after making up lies about WMDs. A nation without honor deserves a president without it.
3
About no telephones ringing:
Democrats with Republican senators know their comments are ignored and useless (like comments to McSalley)
Republicans with Democratic senators know that their comments are ignored and useless.
Republicans with Republican Senators have no need to comment.
Democrats with Democratic senators have no need to comment.
Voila! No telephone calls.
“Tom Cotton played with the fidget spinner Richard Burr had handed out to all the Republicans.”
Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel...
Circumspection is 360 degrees, after all.
Appalling and juvenile-grown men, senators, no less, playing with fidget spinners. No wonder McTurtle restricted camera coverage!
Needless to say, we're in big trouble.
3
“Get rid of her!” a voice that sounds like Mr. Trump’s responds, according to ABC News. “Get her out tomorrow. I don’t care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. O.K.? Do it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/us/politics/trump-recording-yovanovitch.html
That’s good, but I still want to hear the part where he says, “Be sure to do it on Fifth Avenue.”
2
it is a farce or comedy of errors/Alice in Wonderland:
as the Queen cried out "off with his head! trial later!"
1
Modification of Luke 13:28...
“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see..." Donald John Trump found not-guilty of High crimes and Misdemeanors by the Senate Republicans (with a possible assist from some Senate Democrats like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema).
The moral of this story: Hoping to achieve a long-sought political objective "by hook or by crook" doesn't always work.
We now know that the chief justice of the supreme court cannot conduct an impeachment hearing by requiring that all senators attend and listen respectfully.
Every day until the election every publication should have as it's front page the collection of photos showing those gop senators playing with the tops and leaving, and chief justice roberts doing nothing (with names beneath each photo). The statistic, 7 in 10 Americans thought administration officials should be able to testify, should also accompany the photos.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/17/impeachment-poll-finds-most-think-trump-should-let-aides-testify-senate/2675644001/
And each lie told by any lawyer at the impeachment trial needs to be addressed by their respective state bar association.
Our current administration, gop congress, and chief justice may favor the corrupt, however there may still be hope at the state bar level.
Until lying is no longer acceptable and has consequences, the US is not a country to be trusted.
That is what the world saw of our impeachment hearings justice roberts.
2
At this period in our history, getting elected is a more powerful addiction than crack cocaine. And every Republican Senator is throughly addicted.
Imagine not voting to convict a criminal because you fear that the criminal may disparage you in some upcoming election.
Why would you give your soul away to Donald Trump who in your heart you know to be a self centered, willfully ignorant bigot who will keep breaking the law everyday he is in office? Why abandon the Constitution and the rule of law to curry favor with a liar and a cheat whose repeated impulsivity put our very lives at risk?
It has to be an addiction. There is no other rational explanation.
1
Rep. Ernst says Hakeem Jeffries, one of the managers in the impeachment farce, and a couple of other DEMS voted against aid to Ukraine, or did not vote. So why, Ms. Dowd would you open your opinion citing this man?
1
According to Adam Schiff, Hakeem Jeffries is the Democrats, next superstar. He literally couldn't take his eyes off that piece of Democratic eye candy. Go, Democrats!
1
Thank you, Ms. Dowd.
I was waiting for your take - to get the real story.
Now, I know.
This got my attention :
"..But the more impressive the Democrats’ case is, the more depressing the reality becomes. They want to convince themselves that character matters..."
I know Ms. Dowd treats all the same way that is with a dose of blase.
So, I am surprised that these same Democrats obviously failed a character test with that woman, Hillary.
Obviously, Democrats were most unimpressive with their case with "character matters".
May be you did not know then, but now you know?.
I hope that Burr paid for his fidget spinners out of his own pocket and not taxpayer funds!
I'm still surprised Schiff didn't say: "Senator Cruz, how do you know that Trump won't ask Cuba to investigate whether your father was involved with Lee Harvey Oswald in the Kennedy assassination? You know he wasn't. I know he wasn't, but Trump already aired that falsehood, just like he aired the falsehood of Joe Biden pushing to get rid of an honest Ukrainian prosecutor? Nothing is beyond Trump--he attacked your wife, Heidi, as well!"
Make the threat real and PERSONAL to a man who seemingly sold his soul to Trump, a man Cruz should be SWORN to destroy!
Trump WILL be acquitted. It's easier to believe convenient lies than inconvenient truths.
The defense already laid out how the Ukrainians "didn't know" that aid was held back, as if they are all imbeciles. "Oh, the Americans must have just misplaced the $350 million!"
But the Republican Senators will grab that thread and hang on to it. I'm betting that Trump is "acquitted" by a vote of 54 to 46, with Doug Jones, desperate to hang on to his seat, voting with the Republicans. There is NO WAY any single Republican will vote to convict. Not one, especially not "Lucy-and-the-Football" Collins
Hopefully, enough will be enraged to get off their duffs and give us a Democratic Senate, House, and President next November (and that RPG doesn't die before Jan 20th!)
3
Ms. Dowd, your jaded wit is always satisfying, but the actual simulacrality of it all seems to take the air out of the “impressive” Democrats’ case, as if that, too, becomes part of mere theater—as if high-brow reconciliation is the huckster’s complement: Nothing matters but the show and its sophisticated, if cynical, reviews.
Even Schiff’s “Right…matters” becomes entertainment (“goes viral”). Constitutionality becomes staging, protecting the backstage of high society that remains safely private.
This season, with THIS reverent impeachment, we get an example of quid pro quo that actually lost its curtain, proffered as some scandalous exception (among so many whose cover is never blown). “OMG, a quid pro quo by the elected king!”
But insiders know it’s common fare for the privacy of big money. “Society” buys Trump’s so-called base (those sweetly animated naïfs who mistake a salesman’s lip service for populist care). And Big Money buys the staged air of unmanaged fidelity to the king. But insiders know—how boring to recall—that theater is all there is.
Yet, it all can be so amusing among the high clubbers and their jaded pundits: “You want REAL civic virtue?” That can be staged, too.
1
I hope honest fact-checkers are going to monitor the Defense rants, or should we say, attacks on the Bidens.
Someone must put up a view of the Goppers, bordered by vertical column, where factual rebuttal gets posted. It's a civic duty and I hope someone's up to it.
Then, storm the twitter account of the Man on the Throne, who will be tweetstorming things like Bash 'em bash 'em!
1
Voltaire: When you lie long enough, the lie becomes the truth.
2
This is insanely depressing. Looks like they can shoot the Constitution dead in the middle of D.C. and none of his supporters care (NOT YET). They even defend the killing.
2
They say that a fish rots from the head down. Given that at the head of our country we have the likes of Trump, Barr and McConnell along with the crew of moral cowards, opportunists and appeasers that comprise the GOP, we can only expect this rot to spread. How emboldened will wrong-doers be by this brazen display of cheating and lawlessness? This illustration that right doesn't matter? This confirmation that all that matters is power and what you get away with it? Why play by the rules? Playing by the rules is obviously for Democrats and suckers. I would say that Republicans in congress should feel shame but that's obviously something that is beyond their ability.
3
"unholy, jangly, self-impeaching peal" This nails the alternately threatening then whiny braying of Trump better than I've seen yet. His unholy, jangly GOP senators will forever own this hideous "tableau vivant". They may win this battle but the war will be far from over. Right DOES matter, and I believe they will go down in history as traitors, fidget spinning as our democracy burned.
2
I don't it is a coincidence that this is the Year of the Rat.
3
Trump's guilt is obvious. The Republicans will do their best to keep their cash cow in office even though I daresay many of them are also disgusted with Trump. It is sickening to see people choose power over integrity, time and again. Party over country. Greed over life. The republican party has sunk to it's lowest depths yet.
2
Another great piece of writing Ms Dowd. Where is the outrage? Why isn't anyone calling the offices of all those corrupt Republicans who sold out to Trump? I refuse to address someone with a title until they earn my respect. Trump isn't even close. The entire Republican Senate and Chief Justice Roberts have placed politics above country. But the apathy is what I find troubling. History has shown us that apathy gave Germany Hitler. We are repeating history. Our only hope is that this charade will wake up enough voters to throw Trump out and every Republican up for election in 2020. Everyone of them. If trump remains in office, our country is finished.
1
I don't make calls but I am paying attention. I don't expect the Republicans to do the right thing but I hope hope hope the Dems can make a clear case to the electorate. for that they have to explain why it matters to the man on the street. that is, that America is weakened. trump"'s idiocy and lack of moral compass will affect our economy, bargaining power, tariffs, military might etc. for years to come. I don't think most people understand that connection.
2
Two thoughts: The house managers presented a well thought out case designed to be heard by serious deliberative body, but they were addressing the Senate, which is far from that. They should have been more concise and less repetitive.
The Dems made a huge mistake in not fighting tooth and nail against McConnell refusal to do his constitutional duty in at least considering Merrick Garland.
1
"many Americans knew they were voting for a thug" but more voted against him. Hopefully Impeachment will sink in, and this November many more will vote against him.
6
Glad to find the source of the 'heads on a pike' comment. If Parnas could reveal himself, perhaps the Republican staffer would also like to openly relieve him/herself of that wonderful phrase.
Was America ever really “America the Beautiful”?
3
“A Trump confidant told CBS News that Republican senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’”
When Sen. Murkowski heard Schiff repeat this comment, she immediately used it as an excuse to say he had lost her vote for witnesses.
Sen. Murkowski: “‘Head on a pike,’ that’s where he [Schiff] lost me!”
1
Yes, the sobering reality is that forty percent of our voters want a strong man along the pattern of Hitler or Mussolini. They want someone who preserves what they believe are the truest American ideals as expressed in a false history of a nation founded on Christian religion. Trump knows that as long as he plays to this false narrative, he can count on a solid base and a likely win in the electoral college. The oligarchs and plutocrats realize that Trump's populism is still their best hope for providing a populist smokescreen to hide their ongoing plunder of the nation's resources and treasure. In the meantime, Democrats continue to quibble about who is or is not progressive enough. Unless they suddenly learn how to win, we're looking at the end of the Republic and the triumph of darkness over the Enlightenment.
3
"The visitors’ gallery was only half full, and there was none of the passion and titillation that infused the Clinton impeachment, which also, oddly enough, revolved around a power disparity between two people.
One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. “Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.”
Hard to work up much passion over Ukraine. From the amount of reportage and verbiage in the NYT and other similar papers, one gets the impression that this is front page material 24/7. That is the way the NYT treats it.
But perhaps it is beginning to sink in that fewer people than imagined really care, and that is whether they are for or against Mr. Trump.
The Clinton impeachment was after all about sex, regardless of how it was described in the official proceedings. Sex and power. That sells, Ukraine? I guess not.
5
Depressing but true:
"They wanted a thug" - and they got one.
How exactly does thugging benefit anyone but criminals?
3
Many continue to say that Trump voters are in denial. But that's not true. They know he is guilty of every charge brought in these impeachment proceedings. They simply don't care. After all, they've gotten exactly what they want from him.
So what is that that they want? That one's easy. White nationalism. Trump voters love the viciousness, the cruelty he visits upon people of color.
So this leaves the rest of us. Most of us who are people of color are acutely aware that we are now officially approved targets of Trump. So perhaps this leaves only whites who are against Trump in denial. Perhaps they think that things are "not that bad" yet. Perhaps they think that they can just "wait it out" and hope for a better time. But this is a luxury only they have. After all, they will never be targets.
But the rest of us understand that this "president" is an existential threat to us, and will be even more so when this Republican Senate absolves him.
I'm in my 60's. I was born in Chicago. And yet I've heard "go back to your country" more times in the past three years than I heard in my first sixty.
We Americans of color know how circumstances can escalate quickly from "just talk" to targeting minorities. It is certainly no coincidence that hate crimes have risen exponentially in a country where its president says the KKK and neo-Nazis are very fine people. But this is exactly the America Trump voters want, and Republican Senators are happy to oblige them.
8
The checks and balances designed to protect democracy have been repeatedly sabotaged by the personality cult once known as the GOP.
Not to be a backseat driver, but I'm still puzzled why the House even bothered to deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial.
John Dean's suggestion that this should have been delayed, considering that the Senate's response would be fait accompli, seemed a worthy one. It would have allowed for the slow but inexorable trickle of damning evidence to continue flowing throughout this election year, rather than giving Trump and his minions the opportunity to declare victory and move on with impunity.
2
Trump is the puppet of the Republican Senate. As long as they check their moral compass at the door and play with their fidget spinners (a very appropriate symbol for the Republican Party), this country will sink into the boiling water like a clueless frog. The are all counting on November. I don't have high hopes.
4
The picture of McConnell accompanying this piece says it all. Happy, smug, self satisfied - his coup almost complete.
If all of us who want this nightmare ended would stop with the 'woe is me, it's all over, we're a dictatorship now' hand wringing, get our chins off the table and behinds out the door, in the streets, and vote in such numbers as to be incontrovertible, we can wipe that smile off his face and send him home.
We have the numbers.
We have the right.
We have the power.
Unless we give up and give in.
A little over two hundred years ago, we determined with blood, sweat, tears and great sacrifice that we would never be ruled by a king again.
Buck up people. This ain't over 'til it's over.
And it ain't over by a long shot.
5
Just give it up. The Senate will never never uphold the impeachment because they care nothing about the truth. All the GOP cares about is staying in power. Repeat: ALL they care about is staying in power. They cannot be shamed. This is a colossal waste of time. It just makes the Dems look dumb. Speaker Pelosi was right all along. He’s not worth it.
2
'The visitors' gallery was only half full.'? C'mon, it wasn't the biggest crowd in the history of..history? Ms. Dowd, The Don is not going to like this reporting.
The Children in America are witnessing grown up lawyers, lying like dogs.
Many republican politicians would not flinch when their lack of gun control places grammer school children in harm's way, so Mitch McConnell will not blink when Mr. trump's sycophant senators provide America with a Stalin era Russian show trial, without subpoenaed witnesses or documents.
The only path out of this darkness is for Congress to incarcerate officials and witnesses who fail to honor a legal subpoena, just the same as any normal American who failed to obey a legal subpoena would experience. If the Democrats want to honor the Founding Fathers Constitutional provisions, than they need to treat such lawless officials, as if they were not above the established court precedents, and Constitutional mandates, to deal with such riff-raff.
1
Trump hasn't busted up the government or drained a swamp.
He has busted and broken the United States and is drowning it in his malevolent cesspool.
His is an administration with malice toward all and charity for none.
3
Chief Justice Roberts --Where are you?
3
Watched "The 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus" this morning on HBO -- in between watching the President's defense attorneys starting their attack on the articles of impeachment -- a true story about the incredible moral and physical courage of a Jewish Philadelphia lawyer and his amazing wife saving 50 Jewish children from the Nazis in Vienna in 1939, and bringing them to America. What was so striking were the film clips from a very modern 1939 Germany and Austria, with the Nazi flags and banners hung everywhere and the Nazi salutes by every passing pedestrian in front of bronze busts of Hitler on street corners, etc. And all the people who had completely bought into the insanity of that time and place -- within the lifetime of many Americans who are still living. The juxtaposition with today was gut-wrenching. European historian Tony Judt warned time and again that history has not ended, and bad, very bad things could happen once more -- with men having no moral compass other than an obsession with power and winning like Mitch McConnell leading the way. If we all get out of this alive, Mr. McConnell's biography will be, likewise, very, very bad.
2
According to the NYTimes story:
Lindsey Graham yawned and rearranged his yellow pencil and went on walkabouts, later telling reporters, “About the fourth time you tell me the same thing is twice too much.” He cleaved to his lap-dog role, saying preposterously of Trump: “What he wants to do is get to the truth.”
If Lindsey "Two Face" Graham did not understand Prosecutor Schiff's legal arguments the first four times, perhaps he should resign his Senate seat due to lack of character and intelligence.
4
If there is no evidence admitted and no witnesses are allowed to testify, the GOP will effectively become themselves abetters to the criminal in chief. Every last one of them will wear a badge of shame for their contemptuous roles in ignoring the truth. The evidence will come out eventually, in dribs and drabs, and will hopefully hasten the Republican Party’s death march into oblivion.
4
Sorry Maurine. Biggie Smalls got it dead wrong while Peggy Lee nailed it- "What a cat don't know-a cat don't know."
You can tell the truth as often as you wish, but you cannot convert the disbelievers.
2
The Trump toady Republican senators who are coming up for reelection in 2020 would be better off focusing on their own prospects. It's one thing to be Trump, and it's another thing to appear too stupidly obvious in looking the other way at Trump.
Dear Founding Fathers,
Sorry it didn't work out.
4
Re. Clinton comparison-
At 21, I understood quite well the mores, the social norms surrounding an affair with a married man.
I’m betting you did too Maureen, as I know Monica did because she has said so.
What’s it like to be so haunted by the Clintons?
Rather sad I would think - it is for most readers who find them usually and negatively woven into Ms. Dowd’s opinions.
3
The Senate visitor galley is half empty because a) the People know the outcome; b) Many Americans already concluded this is a re-litigation of the 2016 election; c) many Americans are happy Trump withheld aid pending an assurance of corruption allegation investigations; d) many Americans do not find Democrat arguments convincing; e) the many Americans who do not find this convincing are the ones who make steel & aluminum for your buildings & cars, grow your food, generate your power, refine your fuels, extract & distribute your natural gas, construct your Leed-certified building, replace your garbage disposal, haul your trash, wash your windows, drive your bus or subway train, and more.....
Without these other many Americans, you would not comfortably subsist. Maybe you should consider more carefully the views of the many other Americans.
1
I wish Sen Murkowski would object as loudly and outragedly to Donald John Trump's daily outrageous and disgusting statements. Why on Earth was she 'offended' by Schiff's repeating of a news reported statement that Trump would have their heads on a pike if Republicans voted for impeachment? Is she really that naive that she would think that he wouldn't say something like that? Does she read his twitter and listen to his daily spewing of nasty, disgusting, outrageous words??
You know what is outrageous? For senators paid by we, the American people, to sit there and spin spinners like little children in a special ed classroom during one of the most serious, momentous, historical occassions they could ever be a part of is what is outrageous. It is outrageous that these senators could feign outrage at being told the truth, and pretend that truth is a lie because they are afraid of Donald John Trump.
Shame on these Republicans. Shame.
2
As for the republican GOP fools getting drunk and celebrating, I would expect no less.
Rome is burning while you celebrate. But the party will soon be over.
1
Lisa Murkowski shouldn't have been angry at Schiff. He merely quoted a threat from one of Trump's lackeys. Her anger ought to be directed at the thug in the White House, who dares to level such gangland-style threats at any senators who follow the truth and their consciences.
3
To be fair to Mitt Romney, let’s not forget that he is both gutless AND spineless. He is a $100 haircut on a 25¢ head.
3
Come November the American electorate will be administered an intelligence test, and we will then learn whether we are as dumb as the GOP clearly thinks we are.
1
I’m not the only American offended by Senate Republicans fidgeting with children’s toys, walking out ...like Lindsey Graham did when the Democrats re-played a video of his own words during the Clinton impeachment ack to him! These Republican Senators are making a mockery of our Rule of Law, of Truth, Justice, and our Constitution which they took an Oath to preserve, protect and defend.
Instead of preserving, defending and protecting our Constitution and democracy they are...preserving, protecting and defending Donald Trump!
Who’s side are YOU on, Republicans?! We need twenty five patriots to side with the Democrats and hold Donald J Trump accountable! Anyone?
1
They voted for the sociopath and they deserve him. When our institutions including the military are busted by this sociopath they will lament the fact that at one point we had America a bacon of truth and the power to
1
Maureen, where’s your smart banter, your finely tuned commentary ? This column merely laments the foregone conclusion to our 3rd presidential impeachment. Surely you already knew the outcome of this exercise. Our political divisions remain, or even deeper. That’s not news.
I look forward to your next column, with your customary wit, sarcasm and verve. Time to move on, Maureen.
1
This should be settled at the ballot box. To put the country through this is a mistake. The Democrats have already exhausted the patience of a fatigued American public with the incredibly salacious Russia-collusion conspiracy fantasy they pushed for nearly three years, unable to accept the fact that their corrupt, odious liar was beaten by the Republican's corrupt, odious liar. Now this.
The Democrats are their own worst enemy but they are consistent, I will give them that. Consistently politically inept.
1
Could someone please inform Maureen Dowd that no one...seriously, nary a soul...refers to Brooklyn as "B-town."
I'm sure she was trying to be cute and "down," which is not her look, but any further such attempts from her should be kept down in "D-town."
2
Hello Maureen,
What We have are white supremacist bigots on one side
and the TRUTH on the other
and a puppet, along with his party, to bring down !
2
When the Senate acquits Trump, he'll invite Putin for a parade along the Potomac.
3
Maureen, read this article (from the NY Times):
by Josh Blackman (Jan 23, 2020)
Trump Acts Like a Politician. That's Not an Impeachable Offense.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/opinion/trump-impeachment-defense.html
Even though this article elicited 2838 comments in a few hours, the Times took it down as soon as they realized it wasn't producing the response they desired. They didn't just remove it from the headline stories, you couldn't find it in any of the sections.
2
Its sad for those who see Trump as the antithesis to everything we have been for the past two centuries
however we need to acknowledge that he was the selection of our electoral college and by all accounts he appears to remain their favorite
like everything else in life: things change and our country has as well
I'm currently reading Frederick Lewis Allen's 'Only Yesterday'
he describes that convention was in constant turmoil after the first world war and how people thought that the younger generation would overturn all our values and predicted the end of America as we knew it
Trump is an anomaly and along with the bad he has accomplished some good
Trust our democracy to select our leaders not the disgruntled opponents of Congress
The MOST depressing thing ever is that MAUREEN DOWD is writing this. She is a conservative Republican and not some Democratic firebrand. I have been reading her for over a decade and yelling at my screen because I don't agree with her.
My heart weeps for my nation. Pretty sure Maureen is weeping too.
One can ONLY hope that seeing the behavior of their Senators on TV and in news reports--DURING the proceedings--that conservatives and Republicans, 69% of whom want documents and witnesses, will vote them out. And not vote for Trump.
It's time.
1
A GOP senator has a stark choice, but no options. If he/she votes to remove Trump from office, the senator will probably lose re-election. If Trump remains, he might not be re-elected. But better to remain in office and take the chance that the voters will thrown him out.
I suspect some GOP senators secretly hope this will happen.
1
Many of those writing about the Senate trial of Donald Trump focus on the unfairness of a trial without witnesses. The real unfairness is impeachment without a crime.
I know, there's plenty in the legislative history of the Constitution to support the argument that impeachment doesn't require a crime. But impeachment should require a crime. Otherwise, politics and criminal justice must mix, and they are immiscible.
We should avoid following Israel, Brazil, South Korea and others down the road of using criminal law as a political weapon. Bill Clinton's impeachment. Hillary Clinton's email investigation. The Mueller investigation of Donald Trump. Now Donald Trump's impeachment. All were steps too far down that road.
We have never used bills of attainder or made any conduct criminal only after the fact. Impeachment and trial by a legislature is close to doing that. Too close.
Impeachment is an archaic procedure adopted by the British parliament in the Middle Ages and abandoned there more than 200 years ago. We should make it obsolete here as well. Shame on both Republicans in 1998 and Democrats in 2019 for abusing a criminal procedure for political gain.
1
Several years after the fall of communism, a book was written about the reactions of Soviet citizens to the collapse.
There were several stories written by members of the old Supreme Soviet. Their stories, while different, all contained a common thread.
“We did what we had to do to remain relevant to the party, to survive”.
C’mon, people, give it a shot. Next week bombard Republican senators with calls, texts and emails demanding to hear more witnesses and see more documents. Insist on a fair, legitimate trial, no matter how long it takes. Then sit back and picture Donald J. Doofus (courtesy, Gail Collins 1/22/20) striding into the House to deliver the State of the Union while he is still on trial. (Oh, the ignominy!) Go on to picture how the new evidence irrefutably confirms Trump’s guilt — even if the final Senate vote pathetically declares otherwise.
As an extra bonus, picture Mitch McConnell in a face-to-face meeting with the President, explaining scheduling changes.
5
Sadly, in the court of public opinion, you don't have to prove anything.
The defense team could stand up and say "Yes, he did, it. So what?", and the Republican traitors...oops, I mean senators will vote against impeachment. They will vote against it no matter what the evidence is. Does anybody have any other expectation. McConnell is staging a coup.
2
This is but another example of what John Stuart Mill described:
"Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing."
To paraphrase Obama: "Don't boo ( hoo). VOTE!
2
Ms. Murkowski said: “‘Head on a pike,’ that’s where he lost me. I thought he did fine until he overreached.”
Ms. Murkowski like the rest of the Republicans, thinks telling the truth is “overreaching”. Therefore, she buries her head in the sand when it comes to Trump’s tyrannical politics & bloody comments.
4
Trump loves to intimidate and watch the Republican legions fall in line. This foregone conclusion of a trial is creating a future generation of thugs. Not the democracy I signed up for.
3
Don't despair too much as the republican senate brushes this off.
Donald Trump is a self destructive career criminal on a late life downward spiral.
He is going to take a spectacular fall.
2
It’s a foregone conclusion that McConnell and Trump will win this battle.
But the GOP would be foolish if they didn’t understand that the Dems won’t forget this. And when they have majority power in the Senate again (politics always runs in cycles), they will use the same GOP playbook to batter the truth.
This is really the machinery of a banana republic. The irony is that I agree with some of Trump’s policies. But Trump himself is truly human slime.
2
Billionaires like Mike Bloomberg and Tom Steyer should stop wasting millions of dollars on their vanity campaigns and instead use the funds to help defeat Republican senators who vote to acquit Trump including, of course, co-conspirator Mitch McConnell, who boasted about coordinating with the White House on the impeachment trial. Now that would be a real public good.
4
This whole republican charade is so twisted that if it were the plot of Godfather part IV instead of reality it might even be entertaining.
2
Fidget spinners? FIDGET SPINNERS? Are you KIDDING ME? My Senator, Richard Burr, has just put the cherry on the cake by passing out FIDGET SPINNERS to fellow senators? As in "let them eat cake" while we put kids in cages and lose track of them, despoil America's air and waters, vilify the free press, explode the deficit and condone an extortion scheme to influence our elections run out of the oval office. Good to know how much Senator Burr loves his country and how seriously he takes public service.
12
This awful era can't end soon enough.
4
Gasp. Grimace. Moan. Whimper. Cry. Look away. Close eyes. Tremble. Shake head. Lie down. Stare. Despair. Look around. Listen.
Thank you Adam Schiff. Hope.
2
Barbaric as he is, Trump advances and represents a clear agenda, and the Senate Republicans will use the impeachment proceedings to remind everyone that the Democrats do not.
1
I do not believe any Republican in that room will do the right thing. Which is why I will never vote for any Republican for any position ever. If you call yourself a Republican in the age of Trump, you are by definition unfit for public office.
2
Sad reality.
In a way this mess just proves why people voted in Trump in the first place: the system is so corrupt and unworkable that is needs to smashed and rebuilt.
The people were just duped into thinking Trump would rebuild it for the better.
Sanders 2020.
1
This drone of captive white male voices parading before us keep saying the president did nothing wrong. The say it exactly the way they were instructed to say it.
Now one of them is asking us put ourselves in Trump's shoes. Lindsey Gtraham started sputtering the other day how so many people were trying to destroy the poor guy. He had never witnessed anything like it before and that he has a long memory. The same thing he said at the Kavanaugh hearing. He clearly has a penchant for Republican men accused of sexual assault. Nothing seems to excite him more. To him the very charge itself is exoneration enough for him.
1
As Jeffrey Toobin said on CNN, "If you are winning, shut up." Adam Schiff didn't get that memo. Which made it seem as if he and his team were not. And then he made it worse by overreaching.
"He's a snitch."
"I want her fired."
"Take her out."
"She's going to go through some things."
These aren't lines from a Scorsese film. They're verbatim quotes from the president of the United States. So, when Adam Schiff speaks of the importance of character in the highest office in the land, the above quotes from the current occupant of that office should make everyone shudder.
2
I'm a Democrat, but I completely disagree with the idea that Republicans in general voted for Trump knowing he was a thug. They believed his lies, in particular the lie that his opponent was a criminal who couldn't be trusted.
1
The Republicans have the president they deserve. They do not care about serving the country, only their own goals of low taxes and regulations.
I am proud of the Democratic managers who did an outstanding presentation of the facts. Now we have to watch the farce of lies and half truths while Justice Roberts stands by and does nothing.
It seems likely it will be over before the State of the Union. We will then be forced to watch our corrupt president crow about his acquittal.
November can't come soon enough. We must vote these cowardly Senators out of office so that we can make progress for the American people!
1
It becomes excruciatingly clear as we watch this trial that the United States is a country in precipitous moral decline. A shameless thug is President and McConnell a man without decency or honor. The Republican senators are largely timorous and spineless. They see the misdeeds and criminality but put their well-being before that of the nation. This is one of the lowest points in our history, and somehow, I fear we will not ever truly recover.
1
"The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox."
If it had been Hillary Clinton who had said, "Russia, if you're listening" Fox News heads would have exploded and it would have taken them about a nanosecond to impeach her for being a threat to national security and our elections. If she had survived the Mueller report (unlikely) and Hillary Clinton again threatened Ukraine to dig up dirt on her political rival, she would be gone already.
Republicans are hypocrites and liars; they defend behavior Fox News, and so they, would never have tolerated from a Democrat.
1
Alas, relying on facts has never been a particularly rewarding strategy. In today's environment, it is a loser.
The purpose for the 10,000 lies is now painfully clear. Lying about stuff that doesn't matter. Contradicting your own lies, sometimes within a matter of minutes. The purpose had nothing to do with the content of the lies. The purpose was to annihilate truth.
Once truth is annihilated, then speaking truth to power is meaningless.
1
The news media are responsible for playing the hearings as if its a game. Donald Trump is perhaps the most corrupt President this country has had. He's certainly the most ignorant, inept and treasonous. Any other person behaving the way he has would have been removed by their Cabinet before an impeachment inquiry was necessary. Since he appoints the most incompetent and corrupt officials and the decent ones get fired or retire, he has a full rein in destroying our democracy.
Even with all the ties to Putin and the Russian mob, the most egregious behavior has been demonstrated by the republican Congress. I am not sure the American people understand that Russia bought and paid for the president and the republican congress. Hence their fealty to him and all things Russian. It is a moral outrage which over time will diminish our moral standing in the world along with our treasury.
Until the media stops cooperating with this administration, nothing will change. As for the hearings, I watched and so did everyone whom I know. The phones are ringing for the republicans to step up and do the right thing for our country. Stop reporting the republican hype and check with ordinary citizens. We are appalled!
1
Three things:
After 20-30 years of "Godfather" movies a sizable portion of the general public seems to find that sort of (non-presidential) behavior acceptable if not outright admirable.
At least the House didn’t have to shut down the government to send in parties who behaved in a manner that would tempt the president to misbehave in spite of himself.
Sadly, felonious stupidity is not an indictable offense, so there are no sure shots or sure things here or previously for that matter.
I've read and studied too much history in my lifetime to give up.
This is but another page, so stay tuned tuned, folks.
When I see arrogance like the Republican senate reading books and playing with gadgets to appear unconcerned, I know all I need to know. It's called false bravado.
They must distract themselves or they would go mad.
A surer lot would pay attention and give some honor and respect but because most hate what is going on, they demean it and act like surly teens kept after school.
They are faking it. It's obvious.
Go home and have a drink, GOP senators. I'm sure you need it by the end of the day.
Your integrity is broken. You are a global joke.
1
Jury nullification. This is really no different from the trial of Emmett Till’s murderers. Dixiecrats didn’t disappear; they joined the Republican Party. Washington isn’t broken, the Republican Party is thoroughly broken and has been for a long time.
“One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. “Our phones aren’t ringing,” he told me. ‘Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.’”
It’s not that no one cares. It’s so obvious criminal Trump is guilty. It’s painful to watch the spectacle of a thoroughly corrupt GOP senate enthrall to money and power fragrantly violate their oath and the Constitution. For once these clowns are asked to do a couple days honest work and they can’t handle it. Rand Paul doodling? God please forgive us.
McConnell and other GOP phones like my senator Pat Toomey go directly to message voice mil is full. they are ducking constituients by loading the gallery wit their staffers. Made for TV co produced by 45 and Nitch holding us hostage till the wee hours. i have emailed repeatedly requesting rule in favor of witnesses and evidence. My Senator is busy with his candy desk and his spinner. My own vote will go elsewhere at reelection.
The United States is done. Turn oven to OFF.
We're observing the US Senate Republican majority cower before, rescue, shelter, the despicable, offensive likes of Donald Trump; it's a toss-up whose skirts the other is hiding behind.
Almost, one can feel sorry for them because, on their other flank, assembled to hold them to account are the Trump supporting villagers, torches held aloft, ready to storm their castle if they dare defy the defy or impede the Further Adventures of the Trump Family Griftersons.
Usually, when I read Ms. Dowd's columns, I find something to disagree with. Not here.
Ms. Dowd has effectively, and to me, poignantly, showed us that this country IS Donald Trump.
The Senate trial is a sham. Perhaps the Republicans think they are all going to get to work for Trumpy's organization when they leave the Senate.
The Leviathan growing his horns
The City has been forewarned;
The magistrates all in their robes
The housekeeper shuts her doors.
The council of best advice
Their faces, cratered in lines;
The Leviathan growing his horns
The temple has been suborned.
Fox News stopped broadcasting the impeachment trial so Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham could attack anyone opposed to Trump. Their lack of integrity is nauseating. Ms. Dowd has asserted her powers of analysis and provided a razor sharp picture of the mendacious character of Trump and his minions. There is something in Roberta Flack's song, Killing Me Softly, that resonates in me related to these proceedings: something beautiful but ultimately tragic.
1
"The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox." Don't you mean, "re-lying" on Fox.
The GOP defense lawyers hadn't gone 5 minutes before the commentator on NPR had to correct the first lie from Cipillone. I will not be listening to the lies.
Mr Schiff was right in his assessment of the "defense". They are attacking the process, you know, the process that the GOP house defined. Hypocrites.
The American people elected a thug preferable to Hillary Clinton, who is untrusted by many people. It was a binary choice and anything (almost) was better than Clinton. Washington is corrupt, but it is even more corrupt with a pathological liar at the helm. Four more years? Really? Do people really think Trump deserves a second term? I don't think so, but the Dems need to coalesce around their nominee, whomever that turns out to be. Frankly, I see a lot of Senators on stage at the debates, but nobody who really comes across as presidential. It's a sad moment in time for the United States.
“
At night, tipsy Republican staffers treated Senate office buildings as a pub crawl, roaming the halls with celebratory bottles of wine.”
Unbelievable- these people would be fired in any other setting. Governed by people who would not get a job at McDonalds.
2
One would think that with the evidence presented there would be at least one (1) Republican somewhere, someplace that would simply say enough is enough.
We know Susan Collins can go thru the motions with the best of them but then becomes Little Miss Lock Step.
Romney, Murkowski etal will wring their hands and fall in line. Rubio and Cruz two Senators the President has slandered will pretend that bygones are bygones and being slandered by a habitual liar is one of the best things that happened to them.
One can only figure that between Trump and Fox News the intimidation factor must be great or they are just a bunch of cowardly do nothings.
I think they are easily intimidated and have simply thrown the oath they took to defend the Constitution under the bus anda are two cowardly to do what is right.
1
Imagine how this all appears to an outsider.
An absurd leader gets caught abusing the power which no one doubts he does regularly.
He uses every public forum, from Twitter to Davos, to mock the proceedings.
He puts cartoonish figures on his legal team.
He blatantly works with party members in the Senate, where everyone knows his case is DOA.
Any observer would think that this were a tin pot dictator in some lame banana republic.
That is what the United States has been reduced to.
3
Republicans fidget while democracy is dismantled. All hail King Don, the Demolisher and his MAGA Charter to Make America a Grim Autocracy as they consummate the ultimate deal to sell out the rule of law for the rule of Trump.
Here, Mr. Trump, is your best opportunity to absolutely demolish the Democrats. Release the relevant documents and allow your inner circle to testify in such a manner that proves how you acted in the best interests of our country. What, pray-tell, do you have to hide?
1
The whole world has just witnessed a show trial without any witnesses. Shame on all at the highest levels of our government
who were complacent, complicit and conspired to commit this disgraceful destruction of our democracy. The only peaceful recourse available to truly patriotic Americans is to vote out this kakistocratic current administration from the top down.
So in other words, organize car pools far and wide in November. He can be gotten at the ballot box providing you are not voting at an Ivanka owned voting machine.
Devine intervention indeed.
"Elected liars"."Job holders". "Cowards". "Toadies." Are the characterizations too cruel? To demeaning?
They voted to send Americans to war - to fight. to suffer, to risk death and dismemberment. For what? They said it was for national security.
88 senators voted for the Vietnam War.
77 senators voted for the Iraq War.
98 senators voted for the Afghanistan War.
Trillions were spent, millions of civilians were killed, tens of thousands of American soldiers were killed and wounded. God only know how many survivors' and loved ones' lives were shattered.
There is madness here! Brave Americans fought and died for our democracy, but Republican senators stand ready to ignore the abuse of power by a president who jeopardized our national security and the integrity of our elections for personal political gain.
Like Trump, they are violating their oath to the Constitution for personal gain - to get re-elected.
I guess they forgot about all those GIs they sent to war who also raised their right hands.
"Elected liars." "Job holders." "Cowards." and "Toadies."
As a lawyer with 40 years trial experience, let me tell you something. The question isn’t whether the narcissistic buffoon on trial attempted to illegally muscle a dependency to investigate his rival.
Nope, the jury has heard days about the muscle, now they want to hear the other half of the story. Did Joe muscle the same dependency to hire his kid at $50,000 a month? And if so, why? What’s the “deal”, Joe, they ask.
Look, HRC, via operatives, destroyed a server contains thousands of emails and other relevant documents. That’s a real-life crime jurors understand.
And Bill met with the AG secretly at night on a airfield. That stinks as well.
Both sides reek. One side hires agents to dig dirt in Russia, the other to dig dirt in Ukraine.
Its DC. Trump’s corrupt but so is Joe.
1
Hard to want to take the court when you realize the score keepers have already submitted the final score before the clock begins. And you've lost.
Ok, do you go out there and play hard, hoping your efforts will be noticed and lauded? Or do you throw up hands and shout at the rafters that something very wrong has been done and, if not corrected, will happen in the next game, and the next?
Caesar's "iacta alea est ," (the die is cast), as he and his army crossed the Rubicon in defiance of his senate to begin his long civil war, is a statement quietly echoing across the Potomac.
1
I guess "spirit of the law" is a meaningless concept for Trump.
We pay their salaries. Pity.
not even close..
ed murrow would’ve taken don apart in 6 minutes
Why is anyone confused as to "why" the republicans are standing up for Trump. It is much more than just party over anyone else which for republicans would be normal excuse. Nope, they are guilty of taking Russian money and betraying the United States of America... Treason/Sedition.
How Putin’s oligarchs funneled millions into GOP campaigns [DallasMoriningNews]
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns
--As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia.
--Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders…In 2015-16 Blavatnik's political contributions soared and made a hard right turn as he pumped $6.35 million into GOP political action committees, with millions of dollars going to top Republican leaders including Sens. Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham.
--In 2017, donations continued, with $41,000 going to both Republican and Democrat candidates, along with $1 million to McConnell's Senate Leadership Fund..
2
Why Barr is behind Trump... taking money from the Russians. Treason/Sedition
--Barr Once Contradicted Trump’s Claim That Abuse of Power Is Not Impeachable [NYTimes]
--In a memo for the Trump team during the Russia investigation, the attorney general wrote that presidents who misuse their authority are subject to impeachment.
--WASHINGTON — Scholars have roundly rejected a central argument of President Trump’s lawyers that abuse of power is not by itself an impeachable offense. But it turns out that another important legal figure has contradicted that idea: Mr. Trump’s attorney general and close ally, William P. Barr.
Legal Experts Say Attorney General's Ties to Russia Are Troubling [newsweek]
https://www.newsweek.com/so-many-conflicts-so-little-time-1396435
--Barr’s public financial disclosure report, he admits to working for the law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was counsel from March 2017 until he was confirmed as attorney general in February 2019, represented Russia’s Alfa Bank. (Barr earned more than $1 million at Kirkland) and for a company whose co-founders allegedly have long-standing business ties to Russia. What’s more, he received dividends [$5,001 to $15,000 in dividends] from Vector Group, a holding company with deep financial ties to Russia.
--Questions have also been raised about whether Och-Ziff Capital Management, a hedge fund where Barr was a board director from 2016 to 2018, may also be too closely connected to the Russia investigation.
1
Ok, Senator Graham, you want the truth?! DT should have been in jail for racketeering in the eighties, but he and his cronies already had a bunch of officials in their pockets.
So, that leads me to another question, Senator. Does he have you in his pocket, too?!
Unfortunately, facts don't matter very much compared to emotion and unsupported belief. That's why we have done so little about climate change, gun violence, trickle down, Flint's water, the Saudis, Russian hacking, and Fox News.
1
You're totally bumming me out. I didn't know it was this bad, but I suspected as much.
To all those who write that the people are not listening and do not care, I ask you to take note that, so far, over 1200 people have taken the time to post comments here after reading Ms.Dowd’s piece.
This is a good indicator that many many people are listening and do care.
It’s time to talk politics at the water cooler, on the bus or subway, at the dinner table. It’s not rude. It’s not impolite. It’s your right, and in times like this, your duty.
1
I don't have a Democratic senator to call. Consider this my call to the Democrats in the Senate. Keep the pressure on. Even if removing the president from office is a lost cause, truth and justice are not. Don't despair - this too shall pass.
3
For decades I have heard women say that the presence of women in the House and Senate would elevate the process of legislating since women are mothers and think about the future more than men. Men have more self-interest while women have more ethical care regarding public things due to their unique role in bringing forth the next generation.
But now I see that not a single female Republican Senator will stand up to the men in her party due to this supposed unique role, a role apparently as easily shed as the outfit one wore the previous day.
Women may've finally won true equality.
3
These dark forces are fueled by their constituency.
After the dreaded acquittal I hope a safe passage map of America is published state by state so the better half of us and the rest of the good people in the world know where they are welcome and where they are in danger.
3
Trump has been a lodestone to identify an organic Democratic candidate for President. Draft Adam Schiff.
7
The sad part is that American's voted these people into office and continue to support them despite their best interest.
2
We will now see how facts and the truth play out in public opinion. The senators were obviously never going to cross this president, because, if they did, it might mean the end of their political career as it has for many other Republicans who crossed DJT. Like it or not, my faith is now in my fellow American voters. We will see if truth matters to them in the 2020 elections. Maybe some of the supporters in 2016 will realize they do not want a thug as the President of the USA. Maybe some of them will see that the great Trumpster sold them a bill of goods in 2016. Whatever, whether the base wavers or not, I am depending on the rest of us to get out and vote. And I think it will be to evict DJT from the oval office.
Who needs facts when you have Fox, the president amplifying box?
Who needs due process when you have McConnell, who happily sounds democracy's death knell?
Who needs truth when you have Trump, who never stops deceiving on the stump?
Etc.
1
The United States of America and the rest of the world have nobody to thank for Donald J. Trump except the Democratic Party. And the Dems in both impeachment and election are getting ready to give DJT another four years. Unbelievable!
@Charles Becker I think you could look to DJT and Republicans to thank for what happened in 2018. More of the same is going to happen in November.
I never thought I would see the day when American Democracy died. The Republicans who vote to support Trump are traitors, plain and simple. They have crowned Trump so they can keep their jobs as Senators and Representatives in a phony do nothing legislature. Nothing short of a miracle in November will save the Country from the clutches of a dictatorship run by Republicans.
3
Someone should tell the Senate staffer that plenty of people care—they just know that the fix is in.
2
People do care, but there is a point when the only thing WE can do is vote. It’s obvious that the Republican Party and the “Trump base” don’t care about doing the “right thing” regarding abuses our President has showed us since before he was elected. Trump gets a pass no matter what he does or what he says. He clearly thinks he is above the law. As one Senator said this morning, his constituents don’t care about Trump’s behavior. They care about his agenda: the economy, anti-immigration stance, America first rhetoric, and mostly, his thumbing his nose at the so called Washington establishment. The error here is that some day WE will all pay one way or another for this shortsighted view.
Politicians, after all, are just part of the world's oldest profession and most republican senators have raised it to an art form.
1
Fidget spinners in the Senate chamber. Another small but deeply, purposely irritating things the Republicans come up with to mock people who do not agree with them, a slap in the face to the serious process. In this context they are a sign of childish, vindictive minds. But these are Trump supporters so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
3
Oh, I've known all along.
Americans voted for an authoritarian tyrant to rule on their behalf regardless of the collateral damage to others and the planet. Some were desperate because their lives were not working out to their expectations. Some have grown to hate politicians (thank you Fox) so they wanted to empower Trump to blow it all up (he did). Some were racists who wanted to balance things out after the black guy was in power for eight years. Some may have felt that Trump could stop the flow of invading immigrants who were turning the country less white.
They all knew what they were voting for. The question now is if Americans are so corrupted in nature that after having seen the con artist repeatedly ignore the principles of the Constitution that they could vote for him again. And has Trump convinced Americans that we can only prosper and be safe under his tyrannical rule? In the end the election will be a referendum as to how crooked Americans are and if they believe in democracy anymore. I am not optimistic.
1
I doubt anyone with a soul would mourn if Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were frogmarched out of the Senate.
3
"Marsha Blackburn and others left to trash the proceedings on Fox News."
Which was against Mitch's rules which Chief Justice Roberts could have called them on but Roberts is in the bag for Trump as well.
Note: He called out Nadler for being mean to Susan Collins after she sent him a note reading “I had heard both sides impugn the integrity of one another and also cast aspersions on the Senate,” she said. “That is just not appropriate.” and so Roberts did a 'both-sides do it reprimand'. However, Roberts allowed Trump's lawyers to lie and denigrate the House Impeachment Managers and the Democratic House with abandon.
3
Regardless of the outcome here there is one winner. Russia who has succeeded in dividing the entire country.
The people I know that voted for Trump are not Trump fans. They are opponents of the liberal party. Fed up with a minimum wage one third of what it should be. Fed up with the restrictions on small businesses that make it impossible to run your own business.. Fed up with an eight fold increase in jail population.
Bill and Hillary share a lot of blame for all that has happened and they continue to muddy the waters.
1
Forget for a moment the corrupt president.
When will we hold the Senate accountable?
Each an every one a "Profile in Cowardice and Venality".
In the face of reality, the Senators "choose poorly".
And still, 40% of the electorate deifies Donald Trump. If, in the 2020 election, there is no gigantic voter turnout, kiss democracy goodbye...
1
There's really only one problem, and it's not with the trial, which is, sorry to say, an unfunny joke.
What has to be drummed into the skulls of every Senator, and especially those who want to let Trump get his way, is that if Trump is not somehow punished for all his lies, boasting, bragging, sadism and outright lawbreaking, he will continue to do it until he's either removed now or not re-elected in November. That's why there are prisons for convicted criminals. No punishment means -- do it over again. That goes for ambassadors, senators, aides, cabinet members and members of the military. None of these people should be surprised when, at the latest on November 10th, their job and reputation will be fair game for Trump. The only way to prevent a re-run is to run him out of DC NOW.
1
The stain of Trump will forever be on these traitorous GOP Senators. If he is acquitted and reelected they will wear it as a badge of honor. If he is impeached they will be scorned to their grave. The later cannot come soon enough, the former is too frightening to think about.
1
Fidget spinners and spinning Republicans? Try rank hypocrites and lying Republicans, including his attorneys. Cipollone started right off today by repeating his lie/perjury, that Republicans were not allowed in that basement room.
Oh, my, Republicans are just outraged by Adam Schiff's citing a Trump confidante saying Trump will have Republican heads on pikes if they go against him. Just outraged! 1) everyone know that is exactly what Trump does when someone goes against him; 2) that outrages them, but Trump clearly abusing his power to corrupt our elections, seek foreign help with that corruption (the thing the Founders feared most), putting our national security at risk, etc., does not outrage them in the least. In fact, it's not only nothing, it is his right as president. Actually, It makes sense, since this is the party that was outraged to the point of impeachment over a lie about a private consensual affair an thought that was a huge threat to the Constitution and country..although now it seems they are admitting that impeachment is about overturning the result of an election...even though it isn't...the POT (Party of Trump, formerly known as the GOP) is completely, thoroughly discredited and corrupt now.
2
It took ten minutes of the Republican defense to make me ashamed to be a lawyer.
3
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that bad men take power.
1
"Lindsey Graham yawned, ... saying preposterously of Trump: What he wants to do is get to the truth.”
Although we have been watching in horror for over three years, it is still astonishing to see such nakedly obvious, absolutely mindless cult leader worship.
1
I miss John McCain. I believe things would be a lot different with the Maverick sitting in the Senate during this impeachment trial.
1
slightly editing Maureen here :"the more impressive the Democrats’ case is, the more depressing the reality becomes. many Americans knew they were voting for a thug, and they got one.
The Democrats are relying on facts, but the Republicans are relying on Fox.
And if you don’t know, now you know.
THAT- in a nutshell, is the reality of the scandal.
its a scandal also, maybe more so, because a bunch of elected politicians who ( mostly) happened to be lawyers, have been playing, no, manipulating their tool kits, distorting / avoiding the facts in plain sight ( as it would be if any of us were the defended in court). and there's no clear remedy in sight even at the finish line: the ballot box.
more than sad. alarming.
If no one was calling Congress, why were the “circuits busy” every time I tried to call in Wednesday?
1
All of these people have to look themselves in the mirror every night. Even the ones who are biggest supporters of Trump know he is an immoral, unethical, law breaking disaster of a president. They have decided they like power more than doing the right thing. Voters will judge them, their friends and family will judge them and, eventually, their God will judge them.
1
Dear the 'One Democratic Senate Staffer' (who said, “Our phones aren’t ringing,” “Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.”),
There are millions of us watching your tremendous effort with supreme interest and high regard.
If I knew who to call on the phone, I would.
Nonetheless, Thank you.
Regards,
Citizen of USA
At eighty years of age this is the saddest point. To think of all the blood, pain, deaths and treasure for what, this rejection of all we were or hoped to be.
Senators having lied upon taking this most solemn oath then paying little if any attention to the proceedings. Instead reading books or playing with spinners. These are not our best representatives. They are closed minded cowards. Minds closed by fear of the president.
The senate should be mindful that the senate itself is now on trial as is each individual senator.
The average American is and believes in fairness. Sometimes fairness requires courage, something decidedly lacking.
3
Trump not only has wreaked the Country but he has mucked up the world so much that we now have no allies. Trump can cozy up to dictators, but they are not allies, and dictators play him for themselves. Allies can't trust Trump or Republicans in Congress anymore because Republicans can't trust Trump to hold republican values.
2
"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future." John F. Kennedy
3
We know the Republicans are going to let our corrupt President off.
Now the Democrats have to work at taking over the Senate and getting rid of Moscow Mitch. Mitch has down more damage to our country than Trump.
5
@Beverley Bender One minor correction: WE ALL have to work at taking over the Senate...
Donate. Volunteer. Vote.
What the media is leaving out about the ambassador To Ukraine, is that the tape of the dinner with trump and Parnas was recorded in 2018, but she wasn’t fired until mid/2019, 18 months later! And, so what? The president did have every right to fire her or any other ambassador with whom he disapproved.
1
So why does he lie about it?
@Pvbeachbum
He could have fired her with no reason - openly - and it would have been a blip. But he let his mind be poisoned by various worm tongues so they'd smear her name and impugn her character because it would help him in his big scheme of trashing Biden. It took a while, but the poison leached out.
1
History will not be kind to those who ignored their oath.
3
It was a futile effort from the start regarding impeachment itself. However, the hearings in the House exposed what Trump did and the hearings in the Senate are exposing the Republicans as sycophants and phonies of the highest order. So now it’s on to the election where all of this can be considered when voting. Whether it matters will be a test for America. As a country, what are we willing to tolerate? How will Trump and his supporters react to a razor thin defeat? How will the majority react to an electoral college reversal of the popular vote once again? Who’s left who hasn’t already made up their mind? Scary!
2
This trial can be reduced to Fox News, as in what was aired and was not. Saturday morning Fox did air the "rebuttal". The previous days Fox did not air the mounting evidence produced by democrats against king donnie; there were commercials galore, I saw a cardinal saying that Biden was no Christian, China and the march for life, all other news to keep king's supporters well informed, ha.
All other networks were transmitting the trial in direct.
Rupert Murdoch and Fox News are the true enemies of US. And Mitch!
1
53 lapdogs are going to save him..but 100 million are going to have their say this November.. sometimes the truth needs to be certified emphatically.
5
People don't seem to understand that this trial marks the end of American democracy. We are moving into a dictatorship with a man who won't stop until he is crowned Emperor. It's one thing to "bust up" Washington (even our current idiomatic phrases are trashy and, yes, deplorable), it's quite another to happily throw away all your rights as a citizen. That's what red America has done. Bravo.
5
Do they Republicans “rely on Fox?” Or does Fox control them? I suppose it varies from one Republican to the next. But, after this, can we please stop pretending that the Grahams & McConnells & Collinses & Bushes, that ANY of the GOP leadership, have one whit more integrity than Trump? Can we please stop pretending that they themselves are fooled by Fox or by Trump, that they are anything but con-artists out to advance themselves by destroying democracy?
1
It is clear Fox News is setting America's agenda. I imagine Rupert and son Lachlan love their power and fortune. Aussies, who now live in England, own a TV network that is spewing lies and conspiracy theories that Donald takes seriously. And so do the Republican senators. This is how autocracies begin.
4
As Ms. Dowd notes, it is an essential truth that the public little cares. She doesn't go into why, but the explanation is pretty obvious--the Democrats have spent their capital in self-rigtheous outrage and have come up shy too often in the past.
The Zelensky case is a good one -- not enough to demonize Trump, but enough to warrant removal. But that is lost in the shuffle. Trump has been accused of conspiring with Putin, getting in bed with Kim, starting war with Iran, extorting Mexico, going soft on China, abandoning NATO, being a loose cannon around nuclear weapons and on and on.
On the home front, he's accused of supporting neo-Nazis, co-oping the Justice Department, favoring pollution, putting kids in cages and separating them from their parents, giving billionaires a free ride, running to government for personal gain and on and on.
In all the accusations, there is a kernel of truth, but there's always exaggeration. For example, the kids were in cages because of an unexpected flood of immigrants which eventually led to a special appropriation.
Democrats on Trump, while grounded in truth have been highly politicized. And in the process they have stretched credibility. Now that they have landed on a solid accusation, the public is jaded. It's all about crying wolf too often.
1
There is a sickening, nearly perfect irony that would be so delicious if we weren’t on the precipice of losing key elements of our democracy.
Faced with the choice if either:
• Doing their duty; or,
• Ignoring the evidence and violate 2 solemn oaths of office in order to protect President Trump from from the natural consequences of his own actions -
Senate Republicans are are doing nothing less than betraying America right in front of our eyes.
Oh, and for good measure, they are trying to ignore the fact that they have become reluctant tools of Vladimir Putin - a man whose autocratic and expansionist designs they hate.
(I would normally ask: “Have they no shame?” But I already know the answer.)
3
Is anyone else hit with uncontrollable laughter when the defenders of the current president resort to calling out "the previous administration" to deflect attention as a child deflects blame to their sibling? And Roberts is the embarrassed parent hoping the moment will pass quickly without having to reprimand the tyke
2
The quote in Maureen Dowd’s opinion piece today, voiced by a Democratic staffer that “no one is listening” is, thankfully, incorrect. To that staffer, please know we ARE listening, sending emails to Republican Senators and doing all we can to let Senate Republicans know the will will of their constituents.
We are out here...stunned, saddened but resolute. This cannot stand.
5
How frustrating it is to hear Adam Schiff’s and Jerry Nadler’s eloquence dissipate into the Republican despicable mendacity. They’re winning! How can that be?
4
When some Americans are asked about impeachment and suggest it wasn’t a wise course of action they are taking about this sham of a trial. Why sham you say? Well not because the Twitter troll isn’t guilty of abuse of power. Not because he isn’t guilty of corrupting the executive branch of government for his and his flunkies personal gain. And certainly not because his campaign didn’t seek to “collude” with the Russians to undermine the 2016 election and put in the fix for Trump. No it’s a sham because Trump is guilty of everything he has been accused of and “it doesn’t matter”. Not to his sycophants and supporters, certainly not to the congressional republicans. So we have experienced this kabuki theatre for the purpose of confirming a predetermined outcome & giving Trump a “win”. I’m sorry but I would have preferred the House Democrats hounded him with investigations right up to the 2020 election, he has so many metaphorical bodies buried it would of looked like a graveyard by November. The democrats took a stand on principle, unfortunately they were always standing on shaky ground. Now Trump gets exonerated, the Republicans continue to ignore Russian interference in the next election and if we are very unlucky we get another four years of the most corrupt president in modern history. Now that’s sad.
3
If trump had smeared my wife, my father, my son, I would love to be in a position to pay him back. But republicans are the anti-democratic party, wanting nothing so much as power. Therefore, those who have the opportunity to strike him when it counts (not 5-10 years from now when they'll all be claiming they didn't know...), will sit back and take comfort in the ridiculous defense of the "president", a most dangerous person to our democracy.
If all of this was a trial by jury, trump would be found guilty more than 90% of the time (giving credit to those parts of the country which also don't care). We expect thousands of people across our country, every day, to sit on juries and pay attention to the process. We have here a bunch of whiny senators who don't deserve the esteem of the office.
Some day this nightmare will be history. The damage will take years to repair.
2
I called both my California Senators, and have often during times like these and others, sometimes just to reinforce a congressperson’s vote. Like Barbara Lee when she was the only congressperson to vote no on the use of force resolution post 9/11. It only takes a few minutes! Please people, call your Senators and Representatives, if only to let staffers know they are appreciated.
1
It's not DJT on trial - everyone already knows who he is, what he's capable of and what he did. It's GOP on trial. And, ultimately, USA.
1
This voter cares, and knows many more who do too.
I the chaos we must remember to thank our democratic MoCs, Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi.
1
In 2017 and 2018, Trump didn't withhold Congressional aide to Ukraine based on any corruption concerns.
In 2019, Trump withholds aide and asks Zelensky to announce a Biden investigation.
Numerous House witnesses testified under oath, Zelensky announcing the investigations was critical, not actually conducting any investigations.
1
trump and his followers are a cancer on the very foundations of our democracy. It has metastasized into a disease effecting a great many citizens of our country. Everything that trump has done, from the caging of young children to the reversal of EPA regulations protecting our water, to withdrawing from the Iran agreement, to much else has caused great harm and will be a stain on our history for decades to come. Can we survive as a democracy? I’m not sure. If there is a remedy, a cure for this disease, it is at the ballot box in November.
1
Brace your heart, Maureen!
They got no more than 10 years and they will join the endangered species list. By 2030 they will be the super minority-if they still call themselves GOP. With less than 100 seats in the House and maybe 20-25 in the Senate.
This is their last hurrah.
They will rue the days of Moscow Mitch and the Impeached fraudster.
2
I'm not a Senator. But I'm ashamed and disgusted at myself. I am one of those who's tuned off a charade of a trial.
I guess the Fox is in the henhouse, then.
Perhaps impeachment no longer works. It’s impotent.
So sad to bear witness, albeit from the easternmost edge of the Atlantic; still holding onto my own boycott of the US begun after Trump banned people from seven nations in the early moments of his tyranny. Sally Yates was fired shortly after. I still consider her a valued asset of democratic ethos, similar to our own Chrystia Freeland; -ain’t her last name an irony, given how much disdain Trump has shown her. Strong smart individuals. Courageous. Akin to Maria Yovanovitch.
Like I said, impotent impeachment.
For the sake of countries beyond your borders, please vote Democrat. The world watches. And we wait.
1
If you are sickened by the Republican Senators who are standing by Trump, please donate to the campaigns of those Democrats running against Republican Senators who are up for re-election in 2020!!! You might not be able to vote, but you can donate!!
We all know that McConnell and the G.O.P. will use as much corporate and PAC money as they can to defend the Republican-held Senate seats. It's time for all Americans who believe in true Democracy and the U.S. Constitution to speak up, vote, volunteer, and donate to Democrats running for the U.S. Senate in 2020.
2
Well done, Maureen. There is tremendous pain in the Republican kowtowing, genuflecting, and general refusal to acknowledge the obvious.
I wonder if I will be alive to see this traitorous Republican lack of caring for their country come home to bury them. I am 83 and living through some of the saddest days of my life.
1
Anyone with half a brain would see what Trumps lawyers are doing if they connected the dots. Example—Zelensky wanted a White House meeting. By the slide Cipollone just put up, Trump personally invited him to the White House 3 times. But another lawyer triumphantly said earlier this morning that the meeting took place at the UN. Trumpian shell game continues.
It’s easy to reach all senators or reps. Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121.
Republicans may think politics is a game that can be won or lost. Remind them that government service is not a game. They took a solemn oath when they took office and another when the trial began.
Speaking of oaths, Trump won’t let witnesses testify because lying under oath is a crime. That’s why he only agreed to written answers for the Mueller report. And read his answers! Every answer was he didn’t recall or some version of it!! Can his memory be that bad?
And Roberts act as if this is all okay for fear of upsetting POTUS. Our three branches of government no longer exist.
1
Yes, let’s just put a nail in it and call it over. (I’m talking about the United States)
1
Could we count on Trump to build hospitals if an outbreak of corona virus happens here? Could we count on Trump to pool resources and allow red states to help blue states. I doubt it. Better to allow the virus to be contained to California than Arizona, Delaware than Virginia. Better to have good lawyers than doctors.
The USA has a corrupt Congress in charge of reining in a corrupt President. What could possibly go right?
Trump will win this impeachment battle, 100% guaranteed, because of GOP dirty tricks and moral cowardice. There is no timeline in which 20 Republicans suddenly change their fundamental character and do what's best for the country.
Ironically, it just takes five minutes of watching Fox to see that this impeachment, even though it is a sham trial, is sending his base into a bloodlust frenzy. They have never felt more like they are in the middle of a battle for their lives and their way of life, against the forces of "the liberal media" and "the squad" and whoever their latest imaginary bogeymen are. I blame Fox, which engages in outright lies and propaganda that are not comparable to the lefty spin on MSNBC. We on the left are not as riled up as they are on the right, so we really, really need to wake up and fight fire with fire. Or else it will be another four years.
3
One can only hope Americans, tuned out as they are in general, will absorb enough of the impeachment trial to say, "Enough already," and vote against the WH destroyer and his party of goons. What an appalling travesty is unfolding in the Senate chambers, the space the clueless Mr. Roberts (he isn't a chief justice by any righteous standard) called "the world's greatest deliberative body." Seeing Republicans exhibit only deliberate contempt or mindless indifference for the proceedings brutally underscored the irony of Roberts' comical hyperbole.
I am 72 years old. I have not seen us this divided since the Viet Nam years. I am also a New Yorker and could never vote for Trump. I don't understand really why anyone believes him. He has always been a liar and a cheater. He hasn't changed and he won't change now. I only hope nothing immense and dangerous happens while he is in office because he would not handle it well. And he can't file bankruptcy for the country, I have always felt he was morally bankrupt. And he has done nothing to change my mind.
4
When "the acquitted scoundrel triumphantly" sweeps "into the Capitol to make his State of the Union address", what an effective statement on that disgraceful travesty it would be if Nancy er al just got up and walked out en masse.
1
Succinct, and on target. Among the folks I know, apathy is not their condition, but there's too much resignation.
Some great comments as well.
And as to Lev Parnas' tape of the Trump and toadies, just viewed: how could old Senate hands with even a smidgeon of dignity left stomach watching the "President" entertain criminals and solicit their efforts to "take out" our ambassador - - especially when we have heard over and over that our top security officials cannot get his ear? A crook whose favored associates are other crooks . . . and whose ends have nothing to do with the security of this nation.
1
This trial is the big playoff between the Democratic Professionals vs. the Republican Hacks
As a former elementary school teacher, I was appalled and disgusted when the Republican senator handed out fidget spinner toys for them to play with to display their boredom and disrespect for the detailed and factual Democratic impeachment case against DJ Trump.
I wanted Chief Justice Roberts to bang the gavel and tell these smart-aleck GOP bad boys to put away their toys and other diversions and show the proper respect for these august halls of Congress, their oath of office, and the seriousness of these proceedings. Also, show the proper courtesy and respect to the Democratic senators presenting this case that they would wish to be shown. Where do they think they are? On Fox News? And see me in my chambers during the break! Alas, only silence .
Then there was "head on a pike" if any Republican senator breaks party ranks and asks for witnesses and documents! Wow! I long wondered how Comrade Speaker Moscow Mitch controls each and every GOP senator for every vote. This is Dark Ages stuff and worse than I thought.
But historians will have a field day documenting and describing the Reign of Trump Terror--unless, of course, Trump and the GOP win in 2020. After which historians will be silenced, purged, and punished for daring to criticize Dear Leader Trump and the GOP's trashing of the Constitution and rule of law.
The future is now, Vote for the Professionals!
3
There is a sickening, nearly perfect irony that would be so delicious if we weren’t on the precipice of losing key elements of our democracy.
Faced with the choice if either:
• Doing their duty; or,
• Ignore the evidence and violate 2 solemn oaths of office in order to protect President Trump from from the natural consequences of his own actions -
Senate Republicans are are doing nothing less than betraying America right in front of our eyes.
Oh, and for good measure, they are trying to ignore the fact that they have become reluctant tools of Vladimir Putin - a man whose autocratic and expansionist designs they hate.
(I would normally ask: “Have they no shame?” But I already know the answer.)
This is a “sham” trial and both sides know it.
From the RIGHT, all one has to do to find who is telling the truth is to turn on Fox News.
From the LEFT, tune into MSNBC or CNN.
The reason this so-called trial is a complete farce are the rules themselves.
I watched for 3 days as the democrats “replayed” the movie they produced over the past months. For me, it was an open and shut case that Trump and the Republicans were guilty. Period.
Then the “Lawyers” took over on Saturday. Have you ever listened to or believed any lawyer except if that so-called Lawyer was on your side?
I finally just turned it off when there was NO REBUTTAL to their accusations unless you could finally hear from a panel on MSNBC. Way too confusing.
In reality, everything is going to come down to November 2020. If Trump wins, then kiss your wonderful Republic goodbye.
1
Mystified by Dems approach through the cloudy nuance of “improper influence” or “abuse of power.” Trump engaged in a blackmail attempt. This is illegal. Why are Dems allowing a crystal-clear case to get bogged down in GOP smirking obfuscation?
This man corrupts everyone and everything he comes into contact with. The Republicans would be wise to heed the words of Michael Cohen. The same future awaits them. The truth will prevail in the end. Right does matter.
I listened briefly to Trumps defense yesterday while driving, it was the predictable lying one has come to expect from 'him and his surrogates.
Mercifully we were only exposed to two hours of their shady nonsense due to their fear that no one was watching . For Trump as always it is about the number of people paying him attention.
Assuming Trump is acquitted 'if the trial gets to go that far' I have a suggestion for Democrats in the House , Senate, and at Home.
There should be an organized and complete boycott of Trumps State Of The Union. No Democrats should attend, and no Democrats should tune in.
A Boycott of Trump in 'Defense of our Democracy', see how Trump likes those numbers. Lowest ever number of viewers watching and number of politicians attending a State of The Union Address.
Democrats lets show Trump and Republicans that we have the self respect to refuse to listen to a him spew his Populist Lies for an hour or for that matter 5 minutes.
2
If Ms. Dowd is correct in that this is Kabuki theater--and I believe she is--then character really comes into the picture. The only thin standing between democracy and autocracy is the 2020 election. Does the Supreme Court have the character to protect the rights of voters in various states? So far. with Citizens United and Shelby County among other decisions, the Court has demonstrated little interest in individual citizens' right to vote of be informed. This leaves us on the edge of cliff, where the next election will likely determine whether we keep or lose our Republic while a Supreme Court stands by indifferent to the franchise. The character rand integrity of Justices Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas are really on the line in 2020. Are they up to the task?
1
The republicans will clutch their pearls over the
"heads on a pike comment" or
Nadler's dressing down of the republican party, but they will continue to look for anything that will justify a vote to protect the wrecking ball president.
I honestly believe if Trump goes he will take them all down as well, and I think they are aware of that.
Citizens united, corporations are people, the stomping of our law enforcement, intelligence services, and our press.
The attempted removal of health insurance for our poorest, and the lock down of children is shameful.
"On 17 January, Maddie Hernandez turned seven years old at Berks county residential center, a controversial detention facility in Pennsylvania where she has spent roughly 8% of her life" Seven months of her life.
I pray we are now witnessing the death of the GOP
3
Having an elderly stepparent who mimics and mirrors everything that fox news has to say makes this all so personal to me. I try to compartmentalize , but I just keep seeing all that ghostly trump supporter ectoplasm swirling around the conversation, painfully disembodied from the reality of the truth.
If the Senate does not do what's proper, we shall be purged of these apparitions in November. We will succeed because WE will gain strength from any injustice inflicted upon the USA by the lickspittles we call the gop. You can bet on it.
2
Kabuki Master McConnell might be successful in the near term, but from the gaze of history he will not dazzle us, after the sets are taken down, the orchestra is silent, and the costumes stripped off.
2
Republicans swore to uphold and defend the constitution to the best of their abilities. McConnell came along and noted that that last part seems rubbery. Who’s to say what our abilities are? How about we do whatever we want and claim that it was the best we could do within the scope of our abilities. And thus was born the modern Republican Party.
3
This is the moment half our nation committed fully to the dark side.
3
You have to love the Trump defense team twisting themselves into pretzels lying and misrepresenting facts, all in the service of corruption, greed and power.
The willful dereliction of duty in their Senate role would ordinarily, in a true democracy, put them in jail. These senators are intelligent people, many trained attorneys, who in other circumstances would put Trump in prison and throw away the key.
If the president is not removed from office, our democracy is irrevocably changed.
The American monarchy has begun
1
Yes, Republicans were fidgety as the Democrats made their case because the truth makes Republican senators uncomfortable. The Republicans will come back with an aggressive defense and lots of feigned indignation, which is no substitute for the facts and the truth. They will turn America the beautiful into America the ugly. Very sad to watch.
2
I cannot imagine the mindset that would hear my head "would be on a pike" and protesting the wrong person who said it - who was just repeating it as a warning as to the actual threat to me it represented.
It was said. Nobody could make up a reference like that from THE MIDDLE AGES in the 21st century. That's why it got into the public. The malevolent intent was extreme. And the Senate chose to deflect.
So here I am, actually putting myself in that place and being sheerly disgusted at the cowardice.
1
why aren't there huge protests marches happening in DC right now? next weekend?!
Question: if Trump were to be re-elected but Dems gain the majority in both houses, can he be impeached on the same articles or are new ones required (double-jeopardy?).
2
Talk to your brother and listen to the arguments on their way from Trump’s lawyers. I am sure your brother has focused on the facts here and not all the Anti-Trump emotionalism that has poisoned the Dems since Trump began his campaign 4 years ago. Facts matter. Details matter. Listen to them and you might understand why those of us who care more about facts than feelings believe this impeachment is a farce.
1
We all know where this is headed: to the nearest multiplex for the major new blockbuster film, “Trump Unchained,” a docudrama produced by Fox News, produced by Kellyanne Conway and directed by Ted Nugent.
The marketing budget alone has already surpassed $1 Billion in taxpayer funds redirected from Medicare/Medicaid.
1
You hit the ball out of the park — offering us a taste of what it feels like as democracy is diminished. It is depressing. I thank you for ending on that note and showing me how we are all enmeshed in a gangster story about a very clever criminal and the cowards who are afraid of him. It is the very sad result of our failure to educate Americans well enough to appreciate what it at stake. It is understandable when I consider my work as a philosopher and experience as a university professor long ago. We have failed or we would not see what you saw and reported on brilliantly.
Adam Schiff’s speech was so spot on it sounded like a piece from The West Wing.
Donald trump is not on trial in the Senate anymore than the men who murdered Emmett Till in Mississippi back in the 1950s were on trial. With McConnell and the Republican Party as his accomplices trump is lynching the American political system right in front of our eyes on Pennsylvania Avenue and is getting away with it. Those 3500 men buried here in Gettysburg up on Cemetery Hill are being proven to have in fact died in vain, and our government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is perishing from the earth.
4
It would appear that the Republican Party has completely corrupted the federal government and our system of law and order, and they have done so out of fear of the first US president to have taken an oath to defend a document he has never read, the US Constitution. The GOP playbooks is simple: We care about Deficits - under a Democratic president, not under a Republican; we care about perjury - when it's a Dem president and about a private affair, not when it's a candidate for the US Supreme Court or an attorney for the US president twice lying to Congress and the Chief Justice by claiming Republicans were not allowed into the initial impeachment discussions; we care about lying - when it's a Democrat, but not when it's a Republican president lying over 16,000 times in three years; we care about the Constitution - until a Republican president subverts it and decides he is above it and all laws; we care about our democracy - until our Republican president decides Putin knows better repeats Putin propaganda, and sets about corrupting our elections....The GOP is rotten to its core.
2
True sign of climate change; Americans are experiencing life in a Banana Republic. We are a nation with virtual one-party rule, the free press has been under constant attack and our president believes he is all powerful.
3
The Republicans will turn the senate deliberations into a great big free negative campaign ad against Biden. They have the acquittal sewn up.
SO IT HAS BEEN REPORTED BY A TRUMP CONFIDANT That Trump threatened any Senator who voted for impeachment that he would have their head on a pike. It turns out that Lisa Murkowski, who may have rejected Adam Schiff's report is now confronted by corroboration that Trump himself had, indeed, made that statement. Trump seems to be enjoying this disgraceful spectacle greatly. Because his top priority at all times, is gratifying himself. He has no commitment to his oath of office. What troubles me is that the Republicans seem to be indifferent to Trump's disgraceful, destructive, derelict, dastardly statements. Trump is all good. Any whoever opposes him is all bad. Such polarized thinking is infantile. With every minute that passes, Trump places the US at higher risk for being attacked, because he undermines national security for his own amusement.
3
The Republican Party of today is no longer viable. They are now obsolete in the eyes of many patriotic Americans from all walks of life. They have all been exposed for no longer being the fiscal responsible conservatives of the past. They have blown up our deficit and proven that they won’t stand up for our fragile democracy under assault from both foreign and domestic adversaries.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Good Riddance!
A beautifully written summary of Maureen’s impressions of the trial thus far. It’s lovely narrative but thin on the complete facts. Yes, I am sure Schiff & the other prosecutor’s made impassioned arguments particularly in Schiff’s closer. No doubt many of the Senators are rightfully bored to tears.
But she and others in the mainstream media ignore glaring issues such as Schiff’s deception about meeting with the whistle blower. They ignore Schiff’s fabrications on the House floor. They ignore the video-taped quid pro quo confession that Joe Biden provided at the Council of Foreign Affairs. They haven’t thought to ask whether President Obama actually approved Biden’s withholding $1 billion in aid in exchange for firing Victor Shokin. They haven’t asked how this isn’t a witch hunt to overturn the 2016 election since Democrats were strategizing impeachment two years before Trump’s allegedly corrupt Ukraine activity. They haven’t asked how, if this is all about not denying Ukraine US taxpayer money to defend against Russian aggression, that Obama’s blankets & MRE’s were better aid that the missiles supplied by the Trump administration?
2016 election bitterness is not grounds to impeach a President. Nobody called for Obama’s impeachment after his hot mic comments to Medvedev asking Putin for time until after the election.
Democrats are setting-up Trump’s victory this coming November. They’re just too blinded by hatred to see this.
1
Well written, one can forgive Trump's army of lawyers, that is what they are paid to do but the republicans in Congress will forever have a ugly black stain on their records.
It is very similar to the copperheads in the North or the rebel supporters in the South during the Civil War.
Congrats to all the democrats who carried the torch to preserve our democracy from the greatest threat to it, Trump since the Civil War.
There is legitimate debate among Americans who want to get rid of this threat to America Trump.
IMO history has shown us that sometimes you have to bite the bullet and wait a while to get rid of an evil.
That is what Lincoln did during the Civil War. He won the war, preserved us all, the first major democracy in 2,500 yrs. and then ended slavery because without the former he could not get the latter.
I think impeachment was at best neutral and possibly harmful in swing states that the democrats need to get rid of this tyrant next year.
Time will tell.
3
Adam Schiff --- remember his name -- like Alexander Hamilton, Schiff will be remembered for being the articulate, intelligent, truthful, patriotic voice that stood up for the Constitution and democracy while the GOP rabble played with fidget spinners and ushered integrity, democracy, and truth out the door.
3
Ms. Dowd reports, "One Democratic Senate staffer mourned the apathy. 'Our phones aren’t ringing,' he told me. 'Nobody cares. It’s the saddest thing ever.' "
I know I'm being naive & optimistic, but perhaps the silence of Democratic senatorial office phones is because the outraged public is busy calling _Republican_ senators.
6
The Republicans have reduced the Constitution to their misreading of the second amendment. Heads on a pike would happen in a "nation" without law.
An ancient proverb of unknown origin best describes our current morass: "The fish rots from the head down". And given the humongous head of D.J.T. the stench will likely survive and foul our lives long after he is interred and transmogrified into bones and bleached dust
2
Adam Schiff's performance was touching and very powerful. Not as tearjerking as the movie, Rudy, but not bad.
Every time we hear from one of Trump's lap dogs, I wonder if there isn't an aspect of it that we're missing. Is this slavishness, or actual enslavement?
Just as Putin probably has something on Trump, it's conceivable that Trump, with or without Putin's help, has something on various Republicans.
3
@Longestaffe
It is the effect of the Lowest Common Denominator strategy the republicans adopted when reagan won. The effect of enforcing communist style party line unity on all members drove out all of the reasonable people. Now the only people willing to be an elected republican are those who will do as they are told and think that is normal somehow missing that it is the essence of what the real application of "communism" we fought the cold war over is. The Communists sold the idea of communism then enacted a criminal kakistocracy autocracy. The republicans under reagan told us about choice and free markets etc then took away our choices, made markets less free with monopolies and otherwise made our lives worse than they were before along with heaping helpings of constant propaganda to villianize anyone who pointed this out as evil.
2
When the impeachment proceedings began, we were driving from Virginia to Maine to visit relatives. The proceedings were being broadcast on NPR. We didn't listen to it, but instead listened to an audio tape of Hillary Mantel's "Bring Up The Bodies" about how Henry VIII railroaded Anne Boleyn and several others to the scaffold so he could marry Jane Seymour. It was very Trumpian. But there were real heads on real pikes in those days.
My honest-to-God thoughts, really, is that I will do my duty and vote against everything Trump and the Republicans stand for, but I'm not that enamored with the Democrats either. They can say the words but not do the required deeds to gain the trust of most Americans.
I think that the moneyed interests of this country –– the oligarchy –– are in such overwhelming control of our economy, our politics, and our lives, that people are fragmenting out of helplessness to change it in any significant way, and crowds, as you know, are very easily distracted even when they momentarily get what they want.
1
The general American populace is an embarrassment to me, an informed and intellectually curious citizen. The dangerous combination of apathy and ignorance have led us to this point. Our best hope is for someone new to come in and start the damage control and eventual repair.
4
"Why are we here"....exactly. The fix is in. Last night I couldn't help but laugh at the Republicans who were outraged with the "head on a pike" comment. The truth hurts. But if you know you are protecting a corrupt president, what is going to happen to Republicans when even more damaging information is found? And one thing for sure, there is always even more out there. Bank on it.
1
We need to be real about the purpose of this trial.
1. To damage Trump politically, if possible.
2. To damage GOP senators in purple states.
Keep your eye on the prize. This will help us win back the Senate in ten months.
1
A tragedy in progress.
3
When the Senate votes to acquit Trump, which it surely will, despite all the facts proving he should be removed, it will no longer be the so-called “greatest deliberative body in the world.”
5
The business cycle will probably hurt Trump this year. The facts on Trump's Deutsche Bank loans will trickle out this year. Bolton's book will come out this year.
Trump will go away. His congessional supporters will be left holding the bag.
2
After the Kavannaugh hearings’ Dr Blasey Ford’s testimony and the republicans were able to turn it around and make him the victim, I wonder if the Democratic Party, with its principled - play by the rules approach is just a relic in a barbaric,might is right, dystopia of fires, earthquakes and epidemics
2
Dowd, among the finest columnists writing for the Times today, describes one of the most frightening and dismaying events I have witnessed or read about in my 60 years on this planet.
What is unfolding right before our eyes is evocative of the baleful warnings issuing from the sources I consulted while researching my first novel, which deals with executive overreach in the wake of 9/11.
I'm talking about Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four," the memoirs of American POWs held at the 'Hanoi Hilton,' Woodward and Bernstein's "All the President's Men," Li Zhi-Sui's "The Private Life of Chairman Mao," historical accounts and analyses of the rise of Mussolini, Hitler, Pinochet, etc.--not to mention the interviews with former federal agents I conducted to draft my conflicted-but-patriotic, ex-POW and FBI profiler protagonist.
I mention these things because when I wrote "Lion at the Door," I worried that the distorting effects that the trauma of 9/11 had on my own personality might plausibly impact U.S. policy-making vis-a-vis the homeland security initiative. Sure enough, we saw those concerns materialize with the lies our government told us to justify invading Iraq, endless drone strikes, Guantanamo, etc.
But what I did not seriously consider was the possibility of a coup in our nation's Capitol, televised, witnessed, but invoking no outrage, indignation, or even much interest among We the People.
1
Cut to the chase: Tainted election, Tainted President. Vladimir won, America lost. Then look up definition of Omerta'. No surprise here - Omerta' a synonym for Obstruction. Those who are even slightly aware of Organized Crime fully know that Code of Silence. Remember "Godfather". Ironically enough Trump has his own Fredo. Twice now we have seen the Omerta' process and procedure enacted before our very eyes. Cutouts, Associates, Private Meetings, No Phone records, nothing in writing, threats, intimidation, making the other party an offer they can't refuse (Quid pro Quo), conspiracy theories, diversions, denials. Rudy, Trump, Miller, Mitch, Barr and the rest of the clan know the program. Enough. We are in the process of experiencing a monster scam. The former Party of Lincoln willingly complicit. Abe shedding tears at the Lincoln Memorial. Our nation is bleeding. Enough. VOTE!! Take our country back and make America great again.
2
Just to put this out there for others to consider, and hoping I'm wrong -- I think the "head on a pike" comment was planted by the GOP in the press so Democrats would take the bait and repeat it; the GOP could then feign disgust and outrage, distracting from the enormity of Trump's crimes, and giving another cheap excuse to acquit him - "Democrats went too far," etc.
1
Americans should be watching.
This is the death of our Republic.
Republicans are set to hand the keys to oversight
to Don John Trump, who very possibly will nullify an election
that doesn't elect him this coming November.
In doing so he will be backed 100% by the republican party.
This is how great nations die.
Jesus wept.
2
Psychologist Donald Dutton, specialist in domestic violence and abusive men and expert witness for the prosecution in the pretrial of O.J. Simpson, described the "vagal reactor" -- a specific type of psychopath whose physiological readings slow down, calm, during heated arguments, rather than aggravate (heart beat, breathing, sweating, stomach churning) as one would expect. The Senate Republicans reminded me of that concept: In the face of a mountain of evidence incriminating the president, they spin, eat candy, zone out, bland and annoyed -- in their medium.
2
Sen. Angus King stated in an interview that the worst effect of this trial is that the executive branch is no longer under congressional oversight, and that impeachment is now dead.
What ever the dictator allows as evidence is all we are entitled to see. Complain and you can be disappeared.
3
For those who don't examine or even pay attention to the facts it is simply a politics of idolatry. I fear there is no cure for that.
1
The State of the Union is crystal clear.
"The Law is Dead! Long Live King Corruption!"
And like the Constitution, the truth is also dead. And along with them, what was left of our democracy.
The next election will be rigged, just like the last one. Trump will steal into the White House, again. And Mitch McConnell will help to get rid of term limits, so that the, "people will have a voice!".
1
RECALL senators that Trump lost the popular vote and took the presidency based on the electoral college vote.
REMEMBER senators are elected/re-elected via the popular vote and do not have the EC for a second chance.
BEWARE the silent majority. Americans do not like liars, cheats and practitioners of wanton cruelty. All behaviors demonstrated by Trump and supported by Republican representatives and senators.
4
It IS the saddest thing. Republicans smirk over their creation of a sham trial. Obese orange Trump says Schiff, who runs marathons and has the sharpest mind, is “liddle” and not so good looking. Trump’s lawyers offer trump cliches not arguments that would get them laughed out of any other legal proceeding.
It is actually dystopian. Republican staffers drinking to celebrate this sham in the Capitol halls?
We must work hard and smart to ensure the sequel to this sick drama isn’t an emperor’s coronation a year from now. I’ll bet Trump would bring out tanks and goose-stepping troops, and make even republicans say “hail Trump”!
Trump can do anything he wants, after all. The senate will vote to affirm this.
4
Would Americans rather have a president with "character" -- someone who does not cheat on his/her spouse -- like George W. Bush (who lied to drag us into the Iraq War), or Hillary Clinton (whose character includes dissing her fellow Dems, not to mention endorsing the Iraq War)?
I say that, despite their more conventional behavior, George W. Bush was the worst of all time (WOAT), and Hillary would have been worse than Trump. Hillary is much more militaristic, and might have gotten us into wars that Trump has steered clear of; and Hillary would never have stood up to China like Trump has.
To most Americans, the impeachment looks like small potatoes, hardly "high crimes and misdemeanors," hardly the "threat to national security" (ridiculous argument) that Dems have wailed about.
That's why the phones aren't ringing in Senate offices, and the gallery is half empty.
We need a Dem who actually cares about the American public, not his/her own power -- and that person is Bernie Sanders.
1
Over 2 days my husband called every republican senators office to let them know how shameful it was not to listen to witnesses or evidence etc. No where else would you have people not listen to all that is there Before you decide and vote. Disgraceful and so much more. This country is in shambles. All for money and power.
5
Remember when all the brilliant pundits were predicting that Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation would prove to be a disaster for the blue wave? 2018, meet 2020. The Republicans in the Senate can toady along with Trump all they want. This will not be a shining moment for them. The acquittal (minus exoneration) of Trump will likely lead to more Democrats being voted into Senate seats into November. And Trump Unbound--Trump feeling emboldened to break more laws--could also backfire on Trump himself, as voters realize they don't want a mob boss as president. Fox has its thug in chief. It's a question whether anyone else wants that.
5
The GOP behaves like the enmeshed, enabling spouse of an abuser.
Deny anything is wrong, contort and distort your values with explanations to cover the reality of the situation, walk on eggshells so as not to trigger the abuse, convince yourself your reasons for staying are noble therefore you are a martyr for the greater good, or the abuse is a small price to pay in order to get something from your abuser. You've subsumed your identity into the priorities of the offender.
Meanwhile there is real danger and damage to everything and everyone in the sphere/atmosphere of the abuser and his enablers. Plenty of people never wake up to or acknowledge the pattern and take responsibility.
We are in dire circumstances in this country. Who fidgets and for how long is utterly irrelevant...as an aside a great many people need to fidget to focus. The thug and his gang are not just busting up Washington. They are dismantling our democracy.
3
Too bad the Senate doesn't understand it is time to vote him off the island.This guy is gonna need to be forcibly jettisoned, might as well do it now.
3
Yeah, I know. And knew. But what can you do but what's been done? It's on the record now. And sometimes what goes around comes around. Sometimes.
So if Americans are sick of this than they best get out of their chairs and vote. And call and write to their representatives. And wake from their slumber. Or, the criminals will have another four years to consolidate their holdings.
1
History will not be kind to the GOP or the legacy and reputations of individual Republicans. What's to stop Bolton, Vindman, Sondland, etc. from accepting book and public speaking contracts and revealing what they know? Not calling them as witnesses now doesn't shut them up later, and when they do inevitably reveal what they know, those who didn't want to hear from them will look like fools and will face a lot of blame (remember the Iraq war debacle?).
1
Basically, the Trump defense is lies, upon lies, lies upon... The GOPers are sticking with Trump because " they know him, and don't believe he would do anything wrong" (despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary). This means the Republicans are accusing the Democrats of lying about their entire case. And now, they are outraged that Adam Schiff made the remark about heads on a pike, which Schiff ADMITTED he did not know if it was true, and are using THAT as an excuse to stick with the Trumpian defense of lies.
I'm focused on Trump's origins all his life and those who appointed him. Take careful note of how Trump loves Gallagher who brutally killed a captive. That was the big warning and likely a threat. Everyone should take actions to ensure their personal security.
1
You are absolutely right.
The Republican Senators are treating Trump's criminality as Kabuki. Dynamic acting. More by showmanship than by content. All of the GOP, as Samurai of the far right wing, "leaders "See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil."
It is difficult to foresee where this daily constant GOP bombast, lack of ethics and lack of respect for the law will take this once proud nation. The Trump abyss appears bottomless.
Schiff & Co. were brilliant and focused on reality. Sekulow & Co. are delusional and focused on deception. This pretty much sums up the two parallel human universes that now exist on planet Earth. One is real, the other is not.
1
Democracy depends upon rational debate - we're doomed!
If the Senate allows this President to get away with not turning over documents and witnesses which have been subpoenaed by Congress, it will forever change our government. The Constitution establishes a balance of power between the three branches. To allow one person (the president) to have more power than Congress, is to allow a dictatorship. I can't believe the Republicans who once warned us about Trump's unfit character are now willing to sell their souls - and our democracy -for such an amoral, pathological liar. I guess it's true that Power corrupts absolutely.
Never would I have imagined “Dear Leader” would be the President of this country aided and abetted by a Republican Senate. Do they honestly believe he has done nothing wrong? His statements and tweets have convicted him.
All this boils down to the point that if Trump had even half the class of Richard Nixon (a bar too low to imagine) he would resign.
He doesn't.
1
So in "the greatest deliberative body in the world" we see Republican Senators doing their best to show off their complete disrespect and disdain for the impeachment trial of the worst president of anything, anywhere. You know, the part of the Constitution that seeks to prevent the US from falling under the control of a king. Again. At least they're not mooning, but it's still early.
Several sources across the country have fact- checked Trump and revealed that he has lied thousands of times about various issues.
However the Gang Of Perjurers, otherwise known as the Republicans, have disregarded the Oath they have taken to protect the Constitution and have supported the devil who will destroy this Democracy. The GOP has no shame.
According to my very astute grandmother, Republicans serve the truth in a pork based dish, smothered in the gravy train.
Why can't Republican Senators recognize in Trump what Republican Senator Ralph Flanders of Vermont saw in Joseph McCarthy back in the fifties?
Flanders thought that McCarthy wasn't a Republican or a Democrat. He said, “One must conclude that he is a one-man party, and that its name is McCarthyism."
Trump is not a Republican, he's a Trumpist. Loyalty to him is not party loyalty. Many Republicans thought Trump wasn't fit for office when he was seeking the party nomination. What changed? Certainly not Trump.
There seem to be three categories of Republicans these days-- Never Trumpers, Trump Supporters, and Trump Cowards (those afraid of having their heads on a pike). All of them are Trump-centric. Why should that be? Why can't they recognize Trump is not a part of their party? He is a one man show. Does he really represent what it means to be a Republican?
I hope he doesn't, but maybe things are different than they were in the fifties. Maybe Trump does personify what the Republican Party has become. If he doesn't, now is the time for Republicans to prove it.
1
Sorry Tom W and others, but no one cares. Yes, the readers of the NYT and the WSJ, those who listen to NPR, and maybe those who actually watch some real network news, even if it is on FOX. However, the reality is that most Americans don't understand their Constitution or the law, worry only about their retirement funds, football, guns, God, abortion and hating the neighbor who doesn't look like them, or, even more preponderantly, don't care about anything having to do with our government or governance. Quoting someone from NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," Adam Schiff is like Greta Thuneberg: everyone knows he's right, but no one is paying him any attention.
We all now know Donald Trump must be defeated come November. So let us invoke MLK and make certain that on election day 2020 every single Democrat eligible to vote stands in line, rain or shine, and casts a vote for the woman or man running on the Democratic ticket. And before that day support the candidate of your choice, donate a few dollars, talk to your neighbors, volunteer for a phone bank. Please participate because each of us will be held responsible if Donald Trump is re-elected.
Forget depression! The insulting attitude of the Republicans will spur great animosity among thinking and feeling Americans. Especially the young, non-whites, and women of all ages.
Three years is plenty to show people what life under this cult of “conservatism” is about. It will be rejected.
If Trump's getting away with this, committing cirmes and blocking witnesses to the crimes, doesn't cause you to lose all faith in America, what would? He literally can do anything he wants and no one can stop him. He will rig the election in the fall, and when caught, he will say "get over it."
"The blessing of the turtles, the eggs lay on the lawn
Paint a pretty picture for me to sit upon
The calling of the rabbit, the falling of the hare
The hat man then begins to play, a song is everywhere
You want the obvious
You'll get the obvious
Tell them Groucho said, you're just another onionhead"
"Just Another Onionhead / Dada Dali"
Todd Rundgren song lyrics