Impeachment

[GoCubsGo]

Over under on the vote to convict?

I'm thinking 55.

[neoplacebo]

53

[GoCubsGo]

57.

How anticlimactic.

[neoplacebo]

88. Ha!

[Whack9]

Mitch McConnel: Not Guilty.

Mitch McConnels speech afterwards: It's pretty obvious Trump is responsible.

[GoCubsGo]

Mitch McConnel: Not Guilty.

Mitch McConnels speech afterwards: It's pretty obvious Trump is responsible.

That was bizarre.

[Ulysses]

Mitch McConnel: Not Guilty.

Mitch McConnels speech afterwards: It's pretty obvious Trump is responsible.

That was bizarre.

Deplorable.

[GoCubsGo]

Do the dumb fucks writing this have any awareness that they contradict themselves in one statement?

[Vrede too]

If they weren't dumb fuck hypocrites they wouldn't be Trumpettes.

Over under on the vote to convict?

I'm thinking 55.

I was guessing 56, the same as:

Question: On the Motion (Is Former President Donald John Trump Subject to a Court of Impeachment for Acts Committed While President? )

Vote Date: February 9, 2021, 05:01 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2
Vote Result: Motion Agreed to
Vote Counts:
YEAs 56
NAYs 44

6 Repug heroes:
Cassidy (R-LA)
Collins (R-ME)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Romney (R-UT)
Sasse (R-NE)
Toomey (R-PA)

17 Repug heroes will be needed for conviction.

Well, it's a pretty sure bet that Hagerty and Blackburn will not be among them.

Nor lap dog Tillis nor CV-19 insider trader Burr.

I was wrong about Burr. :confusion-scratchheadblue:

Mitch McConnell: Not Guilty.

Mitch McConnell's speech afterwards: It's pretty obvious Trump is responsible.

Senate acquits Trump for 2nd time, as 7 Republicans join Democrats in guilty vote

... It was the most bipartisan impeachment vote of the five in the nation’s history.

Interesting, I guess that's something to be a little proud of.

Trump claimed in a statement that it was another phase of “the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”

Worth quoting Moscow Mitch:

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued a blistering speech on the Senate floor just after the vote in which he lashed out at Trump and said he held him directly and uniquely responsible for the riotous insurrection.

“There is no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it,” McConnell said. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

McConnell went through the defenses mounted by Trump’s attorneys, dismissing each. He expressed agreement with many of the House manager’s arguments.

McConnell also dismissed the Trump attorneys' claim that impeachment was an attempt “to disenfranchise 74 million-plus American voters” who voted for Trump in the 2020 election.

“That’s an absurd deflection,” McConnell said. “Seventy-four million Americans did not invade the Capitol. Hundreds of rioters did. Seventy-four million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage. ... One person did. Just one.”

But in the end, after “intense reflection,” McConnell said he ended up concluding the Constitution did not allow the Senate to convict a former president. The irony is that McConnell on Jan. 13 rejected the notion of beginning the Senate trial immediately while Trump was still president.

Does this mean that McConnell would support criminal treason charges against 45SHOLE? As if.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., one of the seven Republicans who voted to convict, addressed this constitutional question directly in a statement.

"This trial is constitutional because the president abused his power while in office, and the House of Representatives impeached him while he was still in office," Sasse said. "If Congress cannot forcefully respond to an intimidation attack on Article I instigated by the head of Article II, our constitutional balance will be permanently tilted. A weak and timid Congress will increasingly submit to an emboldened and empowered presidency. That’s unacceptable."

... The Republican senators who found Trump guilty were Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Burr and Cassidy were the big surprises. Burr, who is retiring in 2022, voted that the trial was unconstitutional but voted guilty anyway. Cassidy was the surprise Republican vote in favor of constitutionality, but then earlier this week he was photographed with notes suggesting he was leaning toward a not guilty vote.

The guilty vote was the biggest political risk for Cassidy, Sasse and Romney, who all represent conservative states and have not indicated any intent to resign. But Cassidy and Sasse were just reelected last fall, and will not be up for reelection until 2026.

Cassidy’s statement explaining his vote was just two sentences.
“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person. I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” he said.

[neoplacebo]

Turns out that trump's "attorneys" could have just said "it is what it is" as their defense. The result is the same thing.

[O Really]

Turns out that trump's "attorneys" could have just said "it is what it is" as their defense. The result is the same thing.

Yes, but we all knew that. Or not showed up. Either way.

[GoCubsGo]

Turns out that trump's "attorneys" could have just said "it is what it is" as their defense. The result is the same thing.

Yes, but we all knew that. Or not showed up. Either way.

Honestly, he might've been better off with them not showing up.

[Vrede too]

Senate acquits Trump for 2nd time, as 7 Republicans join Democrats in guilty vote

Does this mean that McConnell would support criminal treason charges against 45SHOLE? As if.

Guess I should have read or watched McConnell's full remarks before posting.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/not-guilty-v ... 28379.html

... McConnell suggested that Trump could still face criminal prosecution for his acts.

"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen," McConnell said. "He didn't get away with anything. Yet."

Hmmm. I don't expect him to act, but that sure sounds like an invitation to others.

[Vrede too]

Video Transcript

NANCY PELOSI: What we saw in that Senate today was a cowardly group of Republicans who apparently have no options, because they were afraid to defend their job, respect the institution in which they serve. Imagine that it would be vandalized in so many bad ways that I won't even go into here, and that they would not respect their institute, that the President of the Senate, Mike Pence-- hang Mike Pence-- was the chant. And they just dismissed that.

Why? Because maybe they can't get another job. What is so important about any one of us? What is so important about the political survival of any one of us that is more important than our Constitution that we take an oath to protect and defend?

All these cowardly senators who couldn't face up to what the president did and what was at stake for our country are now going to have a chance to give a little slap on the wrist. We censure people for using stationary for the wrong purpose. We don't censure people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the Capitol.

Scott and Rubio saw no evil that day at the Capitol — to their everlasting shame | Opinion
Carl Hiaasen

See how they squirmed.

“The first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I will do it,” declared Sen. Marco Rubio before it began, “because I think it’s really bad for America.”

No, the trial is really bad for Rubio and other Republicans who want everyone to stop talking about last month’s siege by violent MAGA rioters at the Capitol.

Those who had the hardest time re-watching the rampage were the many senators who said nothing for weeks as President Crybaby spread his stolen-election lies — or even, encouraged him.

The trial is a damning reminder of their own moral failings, and culpability. They don’t want to be there because it was their unhinged leader who called the rioters to Washington, fired them up and set them loose....

For those with a conscience, the challenge was to mask their shame. For those who felt nothing, the challenge was to mask their unforgivable indifference.

All you need to know about Sen. Rick Scott’s shallowness of character is what he tweeted weeks before the trial:

“The impeachment is nothing more than political theater. The Democrats are confusing the U.S. Capitol, where we should be helping the American people, with another big white building in DC that specialize in theater and shows . . . the Kennedy Center.”

The audio tapes of police officers yelling for help that day weren’t “political theater.” It was a chilling chronicle of a mob assault....

By Scott’s snide definition, visual evidence of any historic crime could be discounted as political theater. (His thoughtless reference to the Kennedy Center was ironic — the graphic murder of the president whom it memorializes was recorded on film, and has been viewed by millions.)

Scott and most other GOP senators had hoped to block the impeachment trial by voting that the Constitution doesn’t allow punishing a president who’s no longer in office. A bumbling performance by Trump’s defense attorneys sank that strategy....

It’s obvious why Scott, Rubio and the others didn’t want the country to see the Capitol attack reconstructed minute-by-minute, synced to Trump’s own words. The senators know they’re guilty, too, having done nothing to quell his lies, or the rage that he fueled.

For the most part, their excuses for voting to acquit are cowardly crafted to condemn the violence without criticizing the ever-fuming Trump. Some senators have stuck to the line that it’s unconstitutional to convict an ex-president. Others say that doing so would further divide the country, and that it’s time to move on and heal.

That’s from the same patriotic healers who bitterly fought to overturn court-validated election results, based on zero evidence of fraud.

In the end, most Republican senators will decide that pacifying Trump’s fanatical base is more important than doing the right thing — an easy call for the likes of Scott and Rubio.

At least Rubio admitted that the Jan. 6 assault was “far more dangerous” than most people thought. Scott’s tune didn’t change despite watching the scenes of rioters hunting for Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He seemed equally unmoved by the voices of police officers being beaten with poles.

Halfway through the proceedings, Scott anchored himself solidly in the tainted company of Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley by whining that the impeachment trial was not only a “complete waste of time” but also “vindictive.”

Seriously, that’s what the man said — after four years of defending the most vindictive person to ever sit in the Oval Office.

We'll see if there will be any accountability for Repugs in 2022 and beyond. Unlikely for my Sen Tillis, his seat is safe until the 2026 election.

[billy.pilgrim]

Repugs retake the house in 22 and immediately impeach Biden.

[Vrede too]

Trump impeachment lawyer Michael van der Veen's (suburban Philadelphia) home vandalized


Graffiti is spray painted on the driveway outside of attorney Michael van der Veen's suburban Philadelphia home, Feb. 13, 2021.

Not sure that it matters, but it may have been public property rather than his "home" that was vandalized.

Must be tempting af, but probably not helpful.

[Vrede too]

[Whack9]

Adam Kinzinger, a Republican rep from Illinois that voted to impeach Trump, shares a letter his family sent him.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... etter.html

[GoCubsGo]

Adam Kinzinger, a Republican rep from Illinois that voted to impeach Trump, shares a letter his family sent him.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... etter.html

He was on Bill Mahr the other night. Worth watching.

[billy.pilgrim]

Adam Kinzinger, a Republican rep from Illinois that voted to impeach Trump, shares a letter his family sent him.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... etter.html

He was on Bill Mahr the other night. Worth watching.

Such lovely penmanship. I wonder if God was one of the redacted signers.