And a devastating video. Brings tears to my eyes to watch this footage. I had repressed that last, horrible, tweet from Trump 4 hours after the attack.
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Right now, @RepRaskin is vindicating the best of our Founders' ideals. It is exquisite lawyering. Perfect, sober, balanced.
A "January exception" to our impeachment clause is "an invitation to our founders' worst nightmare," etc.
Pitch perfect opening.
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So glad to hear
@RepJoeNeguse making the Michael McConnell point--even if you think former officers can't be impeached, Trump wasn't a former. He was impeached *while* President. And so glad to hear him point out that Trump's lawyers didn't even respond to it in their briefing.Show this thread -
Huge props to
@JoshuaMatz8 and the other staff who have put together such a compelling constitutional argument--focusing on text, history, and structure. This is how Constitutional Law should be done. And Biden should snap Matz up after this is over.Show this thread -
So far
@RepRaskin and@RepJoeNeguse are like@RepValDemings-level good.Show this thread -
This powerful speech by
@RepRaskin will be remembered in history. We are watching it being made.Show this thread -
The argument by
@RepRaskin may well be the most compelling oral argument I've ever seen. My god.Show this thread -
Interesting that Trump's lawyers begin by calling the events of January 6 repugnant and that they won't defend any of it. That's precisely what Trump didn't say on January 6. Quite an easy mark for House Managers to hit back on.
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The level of skill between the two legal teams is striking. Trump lawyers begin with a bizarre claim that the "heat of passion" defense in the law--which is about when husbands used to find their wives cheating on them and killed them-explains the passions in the Chamber. Um no.
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ok, I just heard one of the more idiotic points I've ever heard in the law. Trump lawyer says we can't look to English precedent because we had a Revolution. Literally every one of the 115 Justices to have ever served on the Supreme Court would disagree. This is embarrassing.
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Of course, sometimes English precedent doesn't apply because of our Constl design. But our Founders most certainly looked to English traditions for all sorts of things--sometimes they deviated, sometimes they embraced. For impeachment, they obviously embraced as Phil.Debates show
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So far we are half an hour in, and I haven't heard an actual argument. I have learned about toasters and honorific titles and all sorts of things.
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In all my cases, I've noticed that folks who are confident in their legal argument dive right in. Others meander. This argument gives meandering a new meaning. He's not even bothered to try to make his arg about former officers, respond to Judge McConnell, Chuck Cooper, etc.
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This is a really weird argument: Ds impeached trump because they are afraid of facing him in 2024. Good luck with that one. His own argument is self-defeating, as Trump just lost. Might it be, instead, that he is actually being tried because he fomented an attack on the Capitol?
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One interesting thing about the House Manager's presentation: I was surprised it didn't begin with Gabriel Sterling's December 1 warning to Trump that someone will get shot and killed. That puts so much of Trump's stmts and actions in context. Perhaps saving that for tmrw.
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Now Trump's lawyer is arguing b/c Trump hasn't been prosecuted for Jan. 6, he can't be impeached. That's backwards. All sorts of things are impeachable whether or not they are crimes. And if I were Trump's lawyer, I'd be very careful about this arg, as his cronies not at DOJ now
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It can't be that Trump a) can't be impeached for Ukraine because America should wait for the election; b) can't be impeached for January 6 because he will soon be out of office; c) cannot be prosecuted while he's a sitting President; AND d) cannot be prosecuted afterwards...
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...for his actions while President At some point, Trump must face a real tribunal. For every right, there is a remedy Laced into our constl system of separation of powers is this core idea–you can’t just precipitate an attack on a coordinate branch of govt&go retire to Florida
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If you are interested in the history of impeachment, etc,
@SammyKoppelman and I wrote this book about it all, pegged to the first impeachment but lots of relevant history etc about what impeachment all about.https://www.amazon.com/Impeach-Case-Against-Donald-Trump/dp/0358391172 …Show this thread -
OK, they may have topped their ridiculous English history argument from an hour ago with the claim that this is a Bill of Attainder. OMG. Next they'll claim this trial violates the Quartering Clause of the Third Amendment.
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I might have missed it, but have Trump's lawyers really responded to the main argument of the House managers, which is that Trump was not a former official when he was impeached and when he acted? (The Judge Michael McConnell argument). We are almost 2 hours in.
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End of conversation
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