Democrats and White House Rest Cases as Impeachment Sputters Toward a Verdict

So pathetic we don’t have a functioning government any longer. Republicans are despicable game show host lovers. Ugh, can’t wait for Bernie to win.

While many republican senators are admitting to the established guilt of Trump in the impeachment charges, they are hiding the seriousness of these charges. By weakening the USA relationship with Ukraine, Trump has strengthened Putin in his ultimate quest to reform the Soviet Union as a threat to democracy, and ultimate world war. It would make sense that Putin gave Trump his strategy in their secret one on one meetings; perhaps even increasing the 2018,19 budgets to make Ukraine more dependent on Trump in 2020. The charges are extremely serious from the perspective of natural security and future generations. The republicans are threatening our national security by their compliance.

Two comments. First, it is ironic that the Republicans, who have long complained about guilty people being let go on a technicality, are arguing that Trump be acquitted on a technicality: the alleged mistakes of the prosecution. Second, if the Founding Fathers wanted a President to be removed only by election, they would not have included impeachment in the Constitution.

State of the Union: - Corruption reigns in the administration starting from the top (White House) - Republican lawmakers on the Hill have lost their collective souls and spines - Democratic lawmakers have lost their bearing and unity of purpose - Judiciary has become completely politicized - Republican base, clouded by their bias and bigotry, have lost any sense of rational thinking and judgement in electing their representatives - Democratic base, clouded by their narrow focus on identity politics and elitist attitudes, have also lost their ability to make rational appeal to republicans in their sphere of influence - Trump and the US are laughing stock for the rest of the world. - Trump is modern day equivalent of Caligula, and unless a miracle happens in 2020 (aka landslide victory by democrats in WH and on Hill, US is on path of becoming failed Roman Empire of the modern times.

Theater of the absurd: that was the shameless performance by the Trump lawyers who continued saying that Trump had done nothing wrong. Even a few Republican Senators have stated that what Trump did was wrong and crossed the line. There may be some Republicans who truly believe that what Trump did not rise to level of impeachable offense but I think the vast majority know that he had abused his office. Even if you were inclined to give Trump a pass on Article 1 he surely was impeachable on Article 2, which was even more consequential and the proof of this was evident by his blanket refusal to honor all subpoenas and demand for documents. The truth will come out and Republicans will be shown to have purposely conspired with Trump on the coverup.

Yes this process vividly shows the extent to which Trump and his Republican enablers have descended in corruption. We are currently under control by extremists and authoritarians. This has happened many times in human history. The only answer is for the real patriots to take back control and beat back this threat. They are here and will not go away. We must deal with it or lose what we think we have.

Adam Schiff's closing speech was one for the history books that should not be missed. I am especially grateful that he and the other House Managers denounced Dershowitz's statements that would give Trump the power of a king. House Democrats and Senators who vote to convict Trump will be on the right side of history. Others will be remembered, if they are remembered at all, for their support of a cheating and disloyal president.

We all knew the probable outcome but only had to see the cowardice and lack of patriotism of the Republican members of the House and Senate in action. The Democratic campaign this year should be focused on videos of Trump's erratic and outrageous personal failings during his term, the chaos in the White House(lots of books about that), the damage to our allied relations with Europe and South Korea, the disgrace of his precipitating the Ukraine scandal and the fecklessness of Congressional Republicans.

Of course the president did nothing wrong. After all, he is the president, so that’s ipso facto impossible. Moreover, he is not just any old president, he is Donald Trump, that paragon of virtue, admired far and wide for his honesty and selflessness - how could he, of all people, be thought to have committed high crimes or misdemeanors? The very thought is absurd. Naturally, President Trump and his courtiers did not deign to allow witnesses or evidence; how unnecessary, how demeaning to a man of his stature and repute. Trump must be exonerated fully and completely by the very honest and forthright Republican side of the Senate, and all those unAmerican Congressional Democrats should be made to sit in the corner wearing dunce caps, Schiff and Pelosi on the highest stools, writing 1000 times in longhand, “The king can do no wrong.”

All the president's men couldn't put humpty dumpty back together again. Vote them all out of office for failure to do their jobs.

The emperor and his entourage have no clothes.

Schiff: "Truth matters to you. Right matters to you...You are decent. He is not who you are.” No, Mr. Schiff. Truth and right matter far less to Republicans than helping Trump evade the legal consequences of his actions. And Senate Republicans are no different than their "Leader". They are both indecent. With this publicly and shamelessly rigged "trial", Trump and his Republican loyalists have demolished commonly understood and respected conventions of legal process. They have officially proven what many regular citizens, especially blacks, have known since colonists first arrived: the notion of "impartial justice" is a disgusting fraud. Trump and Republicans have instead institutionalized the notion that American justice is based on privilege (itself a function of many influences, primarily wealth, race, and social relationships), with the whole world watching. They have officially held Trump above the law. America is in a worrisome, if not dangerous, position now. Trump is a egomaniacal authoritarian who does what he wants by fiat in the form of executive orders and alarmingly, his power as military commander-in-chief. Now that he has been assured that his dictates have no legal consequences, we can expect more outrageous abuses of power than we've ever seen. I invite the reader to speculate about what Trump will do next. Hint: he has already described what he believes to be permissible in a "fair election".

Censure is in order here.

"Verdict" is from the Latin for speak [dico; dictum] the truth [veritas]. There will be no verdict from this Senate.

When the Senate votes, as expected, to acquit Donald Trump even though many now admit that his attempted bribery of Ukraine was wrong, they will have dealt a mortal blow to the impeachment process which specifically lists "bribery" as an impeachable "High crime." In so doing, they will have ceded any remaining control over an already reckless president allowing him to double and redouble his efforts to rig the November election. Donald Trump will have been cleared of all "checks and balances" and thus be "above the law." With the verdict of "not guilty" along with the passive assent of Chief Justice John Roberts, Donald Trump will have crossed the Rubicon of Constitutional constraint from democracy to autocracy.

The way this Senate saga has unfolded and will conclude tomorrow, it's clear that mendacity, cravenness, fraud, and partisanship will score a win over truth ,courage, integrity, and patriotism. My advance salute to Adam Schiff and the entire team of House Managers for waging a noble fight. That this fight ended in defeat will speak not about them but about the categorical disgrace that the Republican Party has become. And to all of us who want to save and rejuvenate our battered and soiled democracy, I say: Let's not forget the Churchillian words "in defeat , defiance" and resolve to take the fight now to the Presidential and Congressional campaigns. Let's mobilize the votes for victory in November.

February 3rd, 2020. Such a sad day for our country... For democracy. First, the effort to rein in the dangerously corrupt president sputters to a halt. Then the debacle of the first Democratic primary takes over the news cycle. Ecumenical prayers needed now! That and action or we will lose what little democracy we have left!

Trump attorneys, sycophants, and Senate Republicans missed an opportunity to make a more rational argument against impeachment. When written, the Constitution had no terms limits. Only because of Washington’s example was the two-term precedent set. After FDR’s four terms, the 22nd Amendment was approved in 1951, limiting presidents to two terms, possibly, just possibly, negating the need for impeachment. That said, I still strongly support this effort by House and Senate Democrats and Trump’s removal. They gathered and presented convincing evidence that Trump tried to cheat in the 2020 race. This was a day after Robert Mueller described more than 100 contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians, and widespread Russian interference in the 2016 race. Just not enough to produce conspiracy charges. All that evidence is in the public record and there will be more. Impeachment needs to remain a remedy to remove a criminal president, especially one willing to cheat for his own reelection, like Trump.

Mr. Schiff is opining that President Trump might sell Alaska to the Russians. He actually said that. This is the guy democrats bet the House on.

The last bell on Friday afternoon has rung and the students are focused on the weekend. Impeachment’s 15 minutes of fame is over.

All the Dems should vote”Present” to protest the sham trial. More importantly this will get a few recalcitrant Dems off the hook and deny Trump a “Bipartisan” acquittal. Maybe even a few Republicans will go along.

The sickness of this situation would have been unimaginable even four years ago. The Republican and any turncoat Democratic senators' voluntary blindness will sadly be remembered in infamy. To those who say. "Let the voters decide," we did by 2.7+ million votes in 2016 but were "out-decided" by the electoral college. We did again in 2018 when the House flipped. How many more times will Republicans move the goal post? I feel as though I'm watching an inevitable trainwreck in slow motion that I can't do anything to stop, and the flaggers beside the track are standing with their flags down allowing it to happen. Republicans are willing to crash America into a stone wall. They - we - have 24 hours to decide to not let that happen.

After the vote, Democrats can begin the process for a do over. There must be something else to get Trump on and meanwhile divert attention from the Iowa Democrat primary follies.

Go Blue in 2020.

Get this expensive circus of inept clowns over with, and send the Bills to Pelosi for payment this time! The taxpayers are sick and tired of paying for their sophomoric GOTCHA games on both sides of Congress ....Please.

The next election will see two narratives confronting each others. From the Democrats: President Trump has been impeach. From the Republicans: President Trump has been acquitted. But what it is more important this acquittal is a victory for the Bonapartiste or Imperial Presidency. Now the Republicans are officially supporting the concept of President Nixon, AG Barr, to name a few, that the president can do anything he wants in the interest of "national security".

Mr. Schiff's arguments made me think of the Defense's closing argument in "To Kill a Mockingbird:" moving, plain-speaking, noble-minded, and speaking to the higher natures he knew his audience possessed; hoping, praying that he could touch that place enough to change minds. Sadly, Atticus Finch failed to change the hearts and minds of the jury in his case, and the result will almost certainly be the same in this instance. Tragically, for us, this is real life, and our government—this "grand experiment"—is likely to be permanently damaged by the weakness of the Republican Party to assert their rights in the separation of powers. The Senate, according to the Constitution, has the sole right to declare war, and holds the power of the purse. Trump has engaged in moving funds allowed by Congress for one purpose, to another of his own choosing, bypassing Congress's control, and they do nothing. He makes military decisions, based not on the advice of senior members of our military, those who understand the issues, but on the wishes of officials in other governments, often those who are not allies—without the knowledge or will of Congress, and the GOP-controlled Senate, headed by Mitch McConnell, does nothing. His policies, regarding the environment, immigration and Civil Rights; his antagonistic relationships with our allies, his fawning over despotic rulers, are egregious enough, but I do wonder if we can take much more of his wanton abuse of what were once U.S. strengths.

To summarize: Democrats play by the rules and make a case with sworn witnesses and admissible evidence. Republicans lie, distract, and scream about victimhood while refusing to allow witnesses and evidence but making their case endlessly on friendly media where rules of evidence do not apply. The usual Republican suspects make noise about their "independence," but wouldn't you know it doesn't matter because the votes will line up as the GOP wants even if a few are allowed to vote against in an effort to save their seats. The GOP wins again, as their leadership publicly guaranteed even as they swore to be "impartial." With the Chief Justice of the United States sitting there solemnly sanctifying this farce. So, business as usual.

Senate Republicans should not allow this rare opportunity to go by without setting a precedent that in the absence of an alleged crime, House impeachment articles "must" include at least 10% bipartisan support. Boy! Talk about a great issue for Pres. Trump's campaign.

Mr. Schiff is correct. We cannot trust trump to do the right thing for the country. Trump and his kids are looking after their own business interests, not our country’s best interests.

The greatest generation died to keep us safe from tyranny, the founding fathers hoped to keep us free and here we are, these cowardly men willing to give that legacy up for their own small power and greed. A sad day for freedom.

For a verdict you need a trial. This house of horrors show by the Senate Republicans was anything but.