Riddle me this: What do you get when you mix a veritable Master Class of an impeachment trial with a bunch of spineless Republican Senators? You get an ACQUITTAL!
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On Saturday, 43 spineless Republican Senators voted along partisan party lines to grant Donald Trump a “Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free” card and forgive him for staging the violent insurrection against the US seat of government on January 6th. Although the impeachment trial was the most bipartisan in US history, only 7 Republicans had the courage to put the US constitution ahead of party loyalty and do the right thing.
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Before a single syllable of evidence was presented, 40+ spineless Republican Senators led by Sen. Rand Paul of KY came forward and publicly bragged that the 2nd impeachment trial of Donald Trump was futile because they had already decided (and voted among themselves) NOT to convict him. They held true to their word.
Throughout the trial, GOP Senators were seen with their feet up on their desks doodling, daydreaming, or sleeping. Others were even bolder and left the Senate chamber altogether — skipping hours of testimony and evidence because they had already deemed it an irrelevant waste of their time and attention since they had already made up their minds.
Still, the trial was not without a few surprises.
On Friday, Republican Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler of Washington came forward with one hell of a piece of damning 11th-hour evidence.
According to the Republican congresswoman, she was hiding inside The US Capitol on January 6th with her GOP colleagues when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made an urgent SOS call to Donald Trump begging him to order his MAGA followers to stand down. He refused. Instead, Trump reveled in the violence and, in fact, cheered it on. His cavalier attitude launched McCarthy and Trump into a shouting match with Trump telling the House leader that his MAGA followers “were just more upset about the election theft than you are.”
“Who the F*CK do you think you’re talking to?” McCarthy screamed into the phone for Herrera Beutler and other GOP legislators to hear — prompting Trump to hang up the phone. That is when McCarthy shared the details of the call to all who were in earshot. Interestingly, Herrera Beutler took notes.
The Trump/McCarthy phone conversation was critical evidence since it was proof-positive that Donald Trump had not only incited his fanatics into violence but actively orchestrated it in real-time.
On Saturday, Democratic House Managers briefly threatened to call Herrera Beutler and others to testify as witnesses (a move that could have taken many months to implement). However, they were quickly reminded that even if they called God Himself as a witness, the stubborn and spineless Republican Senators would still NOT convict their Teflon King.
And so, the vote was called and Donald Trump was (once again) allowed to get off scot-free. Republicans claimed they only voted to acquit because they believed the Senate did not have the authority to try a “former” president since he is now a regular citizen. However, it was all (in the words of Joe Biden) a bunch of malarky.
So, why did they really do it? Aside from being spineless Republican Senators, the clear answer is they’re also deathly afraid of Donald Trump and his MAGA minions.
Acting like a Mafia mob boss, Trump put the fear of God into his GOP underlings and threatened that unless they do his bidding, he will ‘primary’ them and get his supporters to vote them out of the Senate. MAGA wingnuts have also made physical threats against certain GOP members and their families. So, instead of seizing the opportunity to weaken Trump years ago when they had the chance, Republicans now find themselves reacting as if someone is holding a gun to their heads. Because, in theory, someone is!
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The gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats.
First voting to impeach innocent President Trump, then yapping to the press and throwing @GOPLeader under the bus, and now a tool as a witness for the Democrats running the circus trial.
The Trump loyal 75 million are watching. https://t.co/XjC6pbdtyK
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) February 13, 2021
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Following the announcement of the verdict, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to decry Donald Trump as a horrible monster who almost got congressional members and even his own vice-president killed. His appearance had all the makings of a hostage video.
“American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like,” McConnell began. “Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth – because he was angry he’d lost an election.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” he continued. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
Um… so if Minority Mitch believes so emphatically that Donald Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th, why didn’t he vote to convict him??
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“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office. He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell added in a flimsy attempt to deflect conviction from the spineless Republican Senators who are scared of losing their jobs to some local or state court jurisdiction that could successfully escape Trump’s MAGA wrath.
To put it bluntly, this ‘acquittal’ wasn’t about the constitution or right over wrong. It was about fear from spineless Republican Senators who are so afraid of losing their cushy jobs and Capitol Hill benefits to the threat of Donald Trump. All this over a man who served a failed 1 term presidency, never won the popular vote in his lone 2 elections, never sniffed anywhere near a 50% approval rating, lost the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate for his party, was impeached twice (the most ever in US history), and could soon spend the rest of his years behind bars once the Southern District of New York and the State of Georgia have their way with him.
Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who broke rank with Republicans in order to convict Trump, said “Politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude.” Regrettably, when it comes to Republican lawmakers and Donald Trump, that’s EXACTLY what it is.
We are off work today but I still woke up early and had time to come check out the story today. DJ you were right on it like I expected. These Repubs got themselves painted into a corner. That whole argument about unconstitutional to convict Trump was their excuse to get out of doing their job. They are scared of him that is sure. But what they must not seem to get is when they gave him all the power he is going to hold it over their head from now on. They can lose now and save some face a little. Or they can lose later and look like the fools they are. But they are going to lose there is no way around that. Too bad they are not seeing it.