Mad respect, and overwhelming gratitude, for the work and brilliance of the House managers and their staff, preparing and presenting the impeachment case. In particular, Adam Schiff’s brains, work ethic and public speaking talent—no words. Except maybe, “Schiff 2028.”
But three big mistakes were made.
This was never about convicting and removing Trump ,no one expected that. But it was an opportunity to rub the public’s nose in Trump’s awfulness. As great a job as the House certainly did, sadly, three big mistakes were made.
Bribery
Why in god’s name did the House not name the impeachable crime, the right-there-in-the-Constitution crime, bribery? As everyone guessed, the GOP defense eventually came down to, “ok he did it, but not impeachable.”
I’d have given a lot to see Dershowitz et al. argue that bribery is not an impeachable offense, the furthest thing from the Framers’ minds. Naming the crime might well have spared us Dershowitz and the not impeachable defense entirely, wouldn’t that have been a boon? We’d have had hours less stupid debate, and more attention to the mountain of evidence, the sheer magnitude of the offense.
It was very late in the day, Wednesday night, that Adam Schiff finally said that what Trump did was indeed “crime-like” (Dershowitz’ inimitable phrase), that it was awfully damn much like bribery. A few speakers later, Nadler came out with “hell fucking yes it was bribery.” Then Schiff, in answer to a direct question, offered up some odd reasons the House chose not to use the B-word.
And none of that registered. Hours of TV time on whether “abuse of power” was impeachable, but never did I hear the word “bribery,” let alone, that bribery is right-there-in-the-Constitution. We finished out the trial with Lamar Alexander free to say Trump Did It, but It did not meet the “high bar of impeachment.”
It’s clear to me from the Schiff/Nadler interaction that this was a bitter debate in the House (and Nadler is still pissed he lost it). My best guess, the more vulnerable House members were afraid to level such a stark, gut-punching charge, and Nancy sacrificed the knock-out punch in favor of Dem unity and a decisive vote.
Biden
The House should have had Joe Biden testify.
Yes of course, the GOP wanted Biden on the stand to carry out the very plot that Trump pursued in his Ukraine shakedown, to smear his likely opponent with a false charge of corruption. Guess what, the GOP did it anyway. Had we had Biden testifying (and I would have also wanted at least one expert witness to prove the baselessness of the charge), that would have been the most effective counter.
Even the biggest impeachment junkies didn’t watch the entire marathon, let alone the less-engaged of the general public. But witness testimony, Biden himself, those hours would have been watched, and replayed on TV.
And the House (and y’all) are wrong about one thing: the Biden smear is not irrelevant. Team Trump could not sustain Trump’s claim of “no quid pro quo.” They fell back on the second element of bribery, corrupt intent: if a leading presidential candidate was corrupt, it was in the public interest to hear it. I’d go so far as to agree with Dershowitz on this, that Trump becoming interested in Biden’s corruption only when Biden started running was not proof Trump was not fighting corruption. Were the shoe on the other foot, information showing a GOPer’s corruption, damn straight I’d want it made public before election day. The proof of Trump’s corrupt intent was not his interest in Biden, but that he damn well knew the accusations were false, that the sources Rudy was pumping were the poster boys of Ukrainian corruption.
The House managers did expose the baselessness of the Biden accusation, indeed they did a very good job of it. But, a lot more people would have paid attention to those important facts if they had come from Biden himself, on the witness stand.
Biden’s numbers dropped considerably recently. I gotta wonder if Trump’s fucked-up plot succeeded, the impeachment trial became the vehicle to hobble the frontrunner. Big opportunity missed.
Boring
Adam Schiff was incredible, it was a privilege to see such talent and brains and passion on display. Truly an “I lived to see this tour de force” moment. A few others were good too. But too many of the House managers were simply awful. Sorry, but if public speaking is not your talent, you shouldn’t be on such an important stage.
Also in this vein, the length of time and repetition in the House’s presentation of its case was poor execution. This mistake gave the snotty GOP Heathers the opportunity to roll their eyes, (justifiably) complain of boredom and generally show their contempt for the Democratic Party. Trump’s Cult thrives on contempt; our side should not give them something legitimate to sneer at.
I had no mouth and needed to scream
For various reasons, I was unable to comment on Dailykos during most of the trial. Going back through diaries and comments on the live blog, I saw very little about the most important of these issues, the failure to name bribery in the Articles; I would especially love to hear your thoughts and comments about that.
Mostly though, I have found that writing out these kind of thoughts in a diary is the only way to quiet the screaming in my head, as we live through these too-interesting times. Thanks to all who read, and thanks in advance for your comments.