Trump Impeachment Trial Day 2: Live Steam, Day 1 Highlights, Open Thread
Editor’s Note: All updates will appear beneath the live stream feed to keep the page clean as the day goes on
It’s Trump Impeachment Trial time, again, and it is Day 2 with the full live stream from PBS will be available here starting at Noon EST.
Day 1 Highlights The much-talked about opening video from Democratic House Managers (Two Parts):
House impeachment managers introduce video evidence as part of their case against Donald Trump, depicting one of the darkest days in American history. pic.twitter.com/7G2Jf1PEnQ
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) February 9, 2021
PART TWO of the House impeachment managers’ case against Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/vA48lqEDjL
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) February 9, 2021
And House Manager Rep Jamie Raskin gives an emotional opening
In emotional recounting, Rep. Jamie Raskin says members of his family hid under a desk during the Capitol siege, “placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes. They thought they were going to die.” https://t.co/Lau7kmD368 pic.twitter.com/oVkxJmttgm
— ABC News (@ABC) February 9, 2021
And some really ungood lawyering from Bruce Castor:
"I'll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought the House managers' presentation was well done" — Bruce Castor pic.twitter.com/aAbkxdCZhk
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2021
And this gem of irony:
How bad is Bruce Castor's presentation in defense of Trump so far? Newsmax cuts into it so Alan Dershowitz can trash it.
"There is no argument. I have no idea what he's doing. I have no idea why he's saying what he's saying!" pic.twitter.com/3tVD9V3UcZ
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) February 9, 2021
Sadly/Oddly I agree with Dershowitz in his assessment. The second guy hit hard, but ultimately lost given the vote. Frankly if they couldn’t keep Cassidy in the fold – who is not exactly a flaming liberal – they have a more uphill battle then they expected.Report
The formula for this is the same as it is with everything related to holding Trump accountable. It will happen if the Repulican establishment decides to do it and won’t if they don’t. They’re the ones with real agency here, but there’s a collective fiction that its what the Democrats decide to do that matters.Report
As has been the case for many years. I do find it interesting that McConnell hasn’t said one way or the other how he’s voting.Report
I think McConnell was ready to knife Trump and assert control over the GOP, but he lost that battle internally. The Turtle doesn’t do open battles he won’t win.Report
Garbage lawyer for a garbage client.Report
https://twitter.com/DeanObeidallah/status/1359555236482998274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1359555236482998274%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2021%2F02%2F10%2Fopinions%2Ftwitter-commentary-trump-trial-day-two%2Findex.htmlReport
I haven’t seen it, but from what I hear the only way Trump’s lawyers could have beclowned themselves any more, would be to have shown up in cat filters.Report
Are they bringing in any of the Rioters who have been charged and who are now saying they feel ‘betrayed’ and ‘lied to’ by Trump?
Not that I expect the needle to move much among Republican Senators who haven’t committed to impeachment… but if the needle is gonna move it’s gonna move by Trump supporters talking about the betrayal to other Trump supporters.
Again, not that it will create a massive change… but if there’s any chance of giving the R’s a pathway, its through Trumpville not around it.Report
#NoTrueTrumperReport
I concur on this. Cocaine Mitch would throw Trump under the bus faster than you could say “impeachable” -IF- he was certain it’d help the GOP’s prospects next election more than it’d hurt. And if he was certain of the reverse then nothing on the planet would make him permit Trump to be impeached.Report
That’s really the rub with all of this. The GOP is betting Trump keeps them competitive in parts of the rust belt where their establishment’s prospects are otherwise quite bad. They’ll take that even at the expense of letting some of their safe seats in other parts of the country go full nutball for as long as it keeps working.Report
Has the GOP done a post-mortem on 2020 yet?
I’d quite honestly like to see one.
“Instead of Xing, we should have Yed”.Report
My guess is that they don’t believe they have full control of the bus anymore. One of the most important but little remarked upon distinctions between the parties: Team D disdains its base; Team GOP on the other hand is terrified of theirs.Report
The moment you have to stop lying to yourself is a terrifying one.
(I still see Trump as a bullet dodged rather than a threat ended, though. Even with impeachment.)Report
Concur. Nothing has changed the forces that put him in office. I’m pretty sure absent covid and maybe even with covid but against any other D primary candidate he’d have been re-elected.Report
Maybe next time, we won’t get a stupid/lazy Trump.
That’ll be an interesting day.Report
I would object slightly to your analysis. Team D has two bases: the extremely left-wing liberals who the media and republicans push as not just the base but the entirety of the Democratic Party; and the professional class folks, often women and especially minority women, who are much more numerous, more pragmatic and enormously less doctrinaire liberal.
The party disdains the former; has only recently really started realizing the latter exists and views them with a kind of confused gratitude.Report
As others have pointed out, Trump came within 45,000 votes in three states of winning. The obvious Y is “make it harder for poor and minority people to vote.”
The AZ and GA Republicans seem to have chosen that. I can’t speak to the legal situation in GA. In AZ, any such laws that are passed are subject to forced referendum if enough signatures are collected, and some of the proposals are going to be unpopular. I’m not sure that any of the AZ bills will get that far. There seem to still be a few sane suburban Republican state legislators, and Gov. Ducey may take exception to being sanctioned for following the law.Report
I actually look at this as part of the conventional wisdom the GOP sticks with to their detriment. Higher turn out was good for the Republicans this cycle. The schizophrenia on the subject is what lost them the Senate seats in Georgia.Report
There’s no upside on anyone of real standing to do one, because that’ll put a target on you. They’ve learned what happened to the people who post-mortemed 2012.Report
“that’ll put a target on you.”
And everyone should keep in mind this is not a metaphor.Report
To do a port-mortem they first have to acknowledge they lost. They’re still publicly in the “pining for the fjords” stage regarding their victory in 2020.Report