It seems like eons ago when Republican House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy stated that Capt. Bonespurs Trump “bears responsibility” for the “attack on Congress by mob rioters” and failing to “immediately denounce the mob when he saw what was unfolding.” Then Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said that the violent attackers were “fed lies” and were “provoked by the president.” He let it be known that he might vote to convict Trump after an impeachment trial. Within just over a week both had turned into pusillanimous weasels and cowards: McCarthy bent the knee for Trump at Mar-a-Lago dripping lickpittle the whole time. And McConnell weighed in on the Senate trial and questioned the need for it, since a vote of Repukes showed only 5 or 50 might convict.
Never mind the moral cowardice of these two spineless ninnies. The insane events of Wednesday, January 6th, must be etched in the brains of every real American forever - and never forgotten - as much as the attacks of 9/11 for those who were alive then. Because what transpired can never be allowed to happen again, given it shattered our central symbol of democracy and affected the other democracies of the world as well. This means the upcoming Senate trial must be prosecuted to the fullest with the most graphic and detailed evidence shown to the jury of 100 Senators. If nothing else, if the 50 Repukes fail to convict - after the viewing public also sees it - it will finally show what enabling traitors they are. In the words of WaPo columnist Ruth Marcus (see link at bottom): "In the eyes of history, Trump's acquittal will convict those who failed to summon the courage to find him guilty."
Despite this atrocity - which new video has revealed as even more violent than first seen - the Repukes remain vested in their shameless cowardice and obeisance - enough to make a real patriot puke.. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a Trump-worshipping street brawler, went to Wyoming to campaign against Liz Cheney on the steps of the state Capitol. You can't get much lower than a sewer rat like Gaetz attacking a genuine patriot who called out the slime ball Trump for the refuse he is.
Other Republicans - besides McConnell and McCarthy - have also fallen to their knees to beg Trump’s forgiveness as they adopt assorted supplicant positions. Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, originally said Trump’s “actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history." Her latest media appearance found her brain dead, and babbling: “Give the man a break.” Translation: Give the traitor a pass and the insurrectionists responsible for 6 deaths and untold mayhem, as well as the defiling of the Capitol a "break."
Meanwhile, the pussified weasel Lindsey Graham (S.C.) said after the failed coup that Trump can “count me out. Enough is enough.” Now, he’s eagerly coaching Trump (sending updates every day) and has reassured the arch criminal Traitor that “there’s no appetite on our side for this trial.” Transl. "All of our cowards will fall in line and acquit, no matter the evidence!"
At lower levels mass insanity has set in and exposed the GOP as the wreck it is, no longer a respectable political party. The Texas Republican Party, for example, has been promoting its new slogan in recent days, “We are the Storm” — an echo of the QAnon term for when Trump’s enemies will face mass executions. Arizona’s Republican Party, which actually asked whether Trump supporters were ready to die to overturn Trump’s defeat, censured the state’s sitting Republican governor, Doug Ducey, for certifying President Biden’s win in the state.
In a legal filing last week, the FBI disclosed that one such violent extremist, a Trump supporter, was found with five pipe bombs, 49 firearms, 15,000 rounds of ammunition, and bomb-making material. Authorities believe he was targeting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Twitter, Facebook and “Democratic targets” to make sure Trump stayed in office.
Oregon’s Republican Party proposed that the attack on the Capitol was a “false flag” operation. Hawaii’s Republican Party praised QAnon believers and promoted a Holocaust denier.
All of this shows no unity can be forthcoming with a party of seditionists, insurrectionists, neo-Confederates, Nazis and Traitors. As WaPo columnist Eugene Robinson noted in a recent piece, this party must be "burned to the ground" before it can "rise from the ashes." I totally concur given there is no other chance of reincarnating as a genuine national party - as opposed to being a loopy offshoot of a QAnon fetish cult.
To their credit, the House impeachment managers in a meticulously detailed 80-page pretrial brief filed with the Senate on Tuesday, asserted the violent insurrection, e.g.
Bodycam footage shows rioters attacking police during ... - CNN
was the direct result of a campaign by Donald Trump to overthrow the election at any cost, filling the heads of followers with concentrated notions of retribution. Thus, Trump was "singularly responsible" for the violent attack on the democratic process and must be held accountable, in this case by never being able to hold public office again. Thus, acquitting this feral reprobate and traitor would do grave damage to the nation, given he might well reassert his autocratic grip on power.
The managers also asserted that history and even conservative constitutional theory supported the Senate’s right to try a former president. Mr. Trump’s legal team and many Republicans have argued that his status as a private citizen now makes such a proceeding unconstitutional.
“There is no ‘January exception’ to impeachment or any other provision of the Constitution,” the managers wrote. “A president must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.”
They likewise dismissed an argument by David Schoen, one of Bonespurs' lawyers, that the imp was merely exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. The managers argued that on the contrary, by attacking the Constitution, Trump was in fact undermining all rights enshrined there, including free speech. After all, an insurrection - which Trump incited as any imbecile would see- is in effect an attack on the Constitution's most sacred principles: the election to office of a president.
Ohio Senator Bob Portman is what I call a useless Reeptardo flake. On the one hand he'd earlier condemned Trump's actions as "inexcusable" , but then punked out regarding convicting the maggot. He actually suggested in an interview with the Dispatch that next week’s trial is a waste of time because : “There’s not going to be a conviction. We all know that.”
As WaPo columnist Max Boot wryly observed, Portman just created a tautology given that if he and his fellow Reep Senators had one ounce of spine conviction would be a no brainer.
The job and duty of the House managers is to present such damning and explosive evidence (including affected witnesses such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - see link below) that a shocked nation viewing the proceedings would in turn be shocked by the total unwillingness of the Repukes to convict. Indeed it would be moved to convict those Senators as the moral cowards they demonstrated themselves to be. That, in turn, ought to lead to a rout in the 2022 mid-term elections as Democratic ads using insurrection footage remind voters what a sedition enabling, irresponsible party the GOP really is.
As Peggy Noonan wrote in her recent WSJ column (Jan. 30-31, p. A15):
"This event was a loss to rising democracies and to us, to our standing and reputation. Senate conviction is the chance to show the world, 'No, we won't have this! Those who did it will pay the highest penalty."
In the case of Trump, that means never ever being able to hold public office again for the rest of his miserable life. And further, that no future would -be demagogue would dare try such an execrable stunt, with the nation risking insurrection and sedition becoming an engrained tendency.
See Also:
Trump’s Senate impeachment trial won’t be a waste of time
AND:
by Thom Hartmann | February 3, 2021 - 8:42am | permalink
Lawyers galore have fled the prospect of representing Donald Trump at his upcoming Impeachment Trial (the sequel).
So his pardoned consigliere Steve Bannon (who knows his Nazi history) wants The Donald to testify in person. It’s a serious Hitlerian scenario.
In 1923, Adolf tried to overthrow Bavaria’s state government. His violent rant at a Munich beerhall sparked an armed conflict that killed eight (Adolf dislocated his shoulder, then hid at a friend’s house).
His high-profile trial jump-started Hitler’s quest for fascist power.
Trump’s own “beerhall putsch” left five dead, plus two police suicides. He pledged to “be there with you” but hid like Hitler.
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