In an age of memes and GIFs and shortened attention spans, it was a 13-minute long video compilation of the Capitol rioting that had, according to gallery observers, the Senate stunned into silence.
“If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing,” said impeachment manager, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy called the video irrelevant to the case. Yet, Cassidy flipped to yes, voting that the impeachment is constitutional. He joined five other Republicans — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey — in siding with Democrats.
“If I’m an impartial juror, and I’m trying to make a decision based upon the facts as presented on this issue, then the house managers did a much better job,” said Cassidy.
Democrats were less charitable about the defense’s presentation.
“This was some of the weakest argumentation I’ve ever heard, particularly the first one, I mean just on and on and on without any clear focus or purpose,” said Democratic Delaware Rep. Chris Coons.
As the trial moves on at noon Wednesday to actual testimony about the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection, some Republicans see larger issues at stake, noting the House conducted no hearings and interviewed no witnesses.
The presiding judge is not Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court, but rather a partisan, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
“You can’t get a traffic ticket based on the procedures they used to impeach President Trump. And we’re also impeaching the man who’s out of office. When you combine a snap impeachment with an impeachment of a president who’s out of office, you’re going to destroy the presidency itself,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
Democrats know they are unlikely to find the necessary 67 votes to convict the former president. They may have a larger audience in mind.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said, “I think they also hope that when Trump claims vindication at the end after he’s been acquitted, he becomes a fracturing figure in Republican politics for the next two or three election cycles.”
That Democratic objective, to divide and conquer, is also enhanced by continually painting the 74 million U.S. citizens who voted for Trump as extremists, or even domestic terrorists, who need to be silenced on social media, and who need to be kept out of the halls of government, even if by razor wire and National Guard troops in a now quiet city.
