StarfishSaver
StarfishSaver's JournalLawrence O'Donnell, a former Senate staffer, is NOT criticizing Dems for not calling witnesses
Because, having direct personal experience in that space, he actually understands how all of this works , knows why the decision was made, and is fully aware that the House Managers' call was on solid ground.
Interesting that his colleagues - most of whom don't have any of the experience, knowledge or insight O'Donnell has - can't stop second-guessing but the guy who actually know what he's talking about is telling us they got it right.
Assume for the sake of argument that the Senate had voted to convict and disqualify Trump
What would the actual result have been?
How would it have played out over the next 2-4 years?
In what ways would that have changed Trump's behavior/activities going forward?
Hannah Drake: Welcome to OUR world.
Truth ...
The anger and frustration so many people felt on Saturday is how black folk feel every time we all see a video of a cop shooting an unarmed black man in the back, and white people tell us, "We don't know the whole story."
https://twitter.com/HannahDrake628/status/1360726797101449219
Here's a way that Congress can invoke the 14th Amendment insurrection clause against Trump
As I and others have been saying (with some pushback), Congress cannot unilaterally apply the 14th Amendment insurrection clause by declaring by majority vote that Trump is guilty of insurrection and disqualify him from public office. Such an action would violate the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause and would never be permitted by the courts. A court would have to determine that Trump is guilty of insurrection before the 14th Amendment insurrection clause could be invoked against him.
Jennifer Rubin has suggested a process that Congress can use to make this happen - Professor Laurence Tribe concurs.
https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1361078850550194177
Thank you for the Valentine's hearts!
This has been a rough few days for all of us. The hearts have brought me much-needed and appreciated smiles.
Thank you.
Forget the 14th Amendment. Here's a foolproof solution to keeping Trump from running again:
If Congress amended the federal election laws to require presidential candidates to file a report containing their tax returns from the previous 10 years, Trump will disqualify himself.
https://www.fec.gov/
Quick and easy.
This acquittal is not the end of the world. 6 weeks ago, impeachment wasn't even on the table
Yes, it's enormously frustrating that, once again, craven Republicans stepped in to save Trump from accountability for his actions.
But remember that this impeachment is a very short moment in time. Six weeks ago, it wasn't even on the radar. And once the impeachment started, no one thought he'd be convicted. And he wasn't - that's not a surprise. But Trump WAS impeached and a substantial bipartisan majority of Senators voted to convict him. This is historical and important and the Democrats stepped up and did the right thing and history will take heed of that.
But also note that, even if he had been convicted, the only penalty would have been to disqualify him from holding federal office.
And even if he HAD been disqualified, that wouldn't have made him go away. In fact, it would have been a badge of honor - he would have still been in our faces and probably would still threaten to run.
So we're pretty much where we were a few weeks ago. We now need to shift focus to holding him accountable in other, more substantive and sustainable ways. We need to support House and Senate hearings into Trump's wrongdoing and criminal investigations and prosecutions for his crimes.
Today was frustrating and disappointing. But it's not the end of anything - only the beginning.
It's odd seeing people hammer Dems for not questioning a witness in 2-3 weeks instead of hammering
the GOP for acquitting Donald Trump today.
Especially since Democrats got that witness' testimony into the record and it wouldn't have made any difference at all to the outcome even if Jesus Christ Himself stood next to her nodding and giving thumps ups while she testified.
The focus should be on the Republicans not on the Democrats who busted their asses and did a brilliant job in putting together and presenting their case.
Why is it that some Democrats are so intent on tearing down their own?
Trump was acquitted, but a bipartisan majority of Senators found him guilty
And he was acquitted by a strictly partisan minority of Republican followers.
Remember that.
History surely will.
PLEASE CALM DOWN! Raskin's move was absolutely perfect. This was a win
Last night and this morning, many people demanded that McCarthy be called as a witness to force him to admit that he had the conversation with Trump on January 6 as described by Rep. Herrera Butler. They insisted that this information needed to be put in the record.
This morning, Rep. Raskin paved the way for Herrera Butler to testify. Trump's attorneys freaked out. Now, a few minutes ago, Schumer announced that Herrera-Butler's previous statements would be put into the record. And Trump's attorneys stipulated that he would not object to it going into the record.
This is a big deal. If the point of bringing in Herrera-Butler was to get her statement on record and the point of bringing in McCarthy was to get hm to admit to the conversation, then putting her statement in the record and having Trump, the other person in the conversation, essentially admit that the conversation happened achieves the goal of any testimony. And it does so without a lot of delays, distractions, drama, extraneous defense witnesses and other circus-like shenanigans.
I understand why some people may think this was a cave at first blush. But if you wanted McCarthy to testify to prove that this conversation occurred, Trump admitting that the conversation occurred takes care of that.
Now, if you were looking for some other kind of drama to come out of that, that's another thing. But the purpose most people claimed they wanted from McCarthy's testimony has been satisfied beautifully.
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