The second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump—this time for inciting an insurrection—is underway, with Tuesday bringing four hours of debate on whether it’s constitutional to hold an impeachment trial for someone who is no longer in office. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the Senate already voted once on this question, with five Republicans joining Democrats to say yes, it is.
The quality of the Trump team’s argument was previewed when one of the lawyers they cited in a pre-trial document said they misrepresented his work.
Assuming Republicans once again join Democrats in moving the trial forward, the coming days will bring up to 16 hours of arguments over two days from both the House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team, followed by up to four hours of questions from senators, possibly followed by debate over whether to allow witnesses and subpoenas.
At no point should we lose sight of the fact that this trial is about an insurrection aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the presidential election, in which five people lost their lives.
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2021 · 8:44:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Castor still at it. Now he’s arguing … people get elected all the time. So nobody should ever be impeached. I think. It’s no more coherent than anything else he’s said.
Oh he did say “President Biden.” Trump’s going to be angry.
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2021 · 8:53:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Now David Schoen is up. He was Roger Stone’s (losing) attorney in his (losing) case. And he’s worried, sir. “My overriding emotion is one of wanting to cry because of what I believe this proceeding will do to our Constitution.”
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2021 · 9:12:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Schoen arguing that Trump was impeached too fast, and also not in time. Which followed Castor complaining that Trump shouldn’t have been impeached before the investigation into Jan. 6 was complete, except Trump couldn’t be impeached after leaving office.
Tuesday, Feb 9, 2021 · 9:45:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Schoen suggest impeaching Jimmy Carter “for his handling of the Iran hostage scandal.” Kind of skips over the other guy who was, illegally, negotiating with Iran to keep the hostages in order to harm Carter during the election.