This was always the conclusion. We're just here a week earlier.

[SaschaHM]

Lamar Alexander is a coward. However, at this point, no witness and no amount of public pressure was going to flip the 20 senators that we needed to remove trump.

Acquittal was always in the card. What was at question was whether the Republican Party would acquit him after a semblance of a fair trial or after a rushed together cover up. They chose the latter and we need to remind voters of that every day until they are out of the Senate.

[KPN]

1. Yup. But knowing that somehow does not make things feel any better. Tonight and tomorrow are/will

be low points in American history, right up there with slavery and our treatment of native Americans as a whole. We are now without question a morally corrupt and lawless nation. That's a tough pill to swallow in itself, let alone the white supremacist, hurdling toward apocalypse/rapture crap.

[RockRaven]

3. If the US survives this in a NOT Putin/Erdogan/Kim/etc type state, this might be the Senate's

version of SCOTUS's Dred Scott decision -- extraordinarily pretextual and bogus arguments for their action, totally indefensible on any rational or evidentiary grounds, terrible consequences, historically reviled.

If the US does not, then we've always been at war with Eastasia.

[RockRaven]

2. They were never going to convict. Ergo, the matter was always about: would they damage themselves

by allowing the witnesses to expose them as horribly corrupt via their ignoring of the witness testimony, or would they take control and expose themselves as horribly corrupt by refusing to listen to witness testimony.

You've got to hand it to them -- they aren't going to allow anyone else to light them on fire, by god they are going to immolate themselves.

THE ONLY IMPEACHMENT TRIAL IN HISTORY -- OF ANY OFFICE -- WHICH DID NOT ALLOW WITNESS TESTIMONY.

[Mike Niendorff]

4. Let's be clear:

Trump's guilt is not in serious question here.

The issue is : will the Senate do its job?

The answer is : a resounding "NO"


MDN

[napi21]

5. I don't see it as a problem. Bolten's book comes out in 2-3 weeks. Even more bad news for the

WH. The Pubs will be proven to have rigged the trial in favor of DT. Payback in November is coming! The voters will know DT is guilty of the charges he was impeached for and they will have the final vote

[Aussie105]

6. First, people thought voting for Hillary would be a given.

Nobody would vote for that fake guy, right?

Much disappointment followed.

Then everyone put their faith and hope in the Mueller report.
Mueller would set things straight, right?

Much disappointment followed.

Then everyone put their faith and hope in the Senate impeachment trial.
The Senate would set things straight, right?

Much disappointment followed.

Then everyone put their faith and hope in the upcoming election.
No one would make the same crazy stuff-up again, right?

I'm starting to see a pattern here . . .

[Turbineguy]

7. Opening the door to witnesses is dangerous.

For some republican Senators. Slippery slope. Camel's nose.