PLEASE CALM DOWN! Raskin's move was absolutely perfect. This was a win

[DonaldsRump]

186. Can I beg to disagree?

Dear SS:

We had a "heart-felt" conversation earlier today ( ) , which was great!

But, I do think that the Senate could have let this run longer. There was no particular reason to end this today. Getting the statement into the record was good, but there was MUCH, MUCH more that could have been done.

I go back to Watergate and Benghazi. In the latter, the Rs helped to destroy HRC with the "death by a thousand cuts" theory of going after her for years on this, as well as the emails. It then became a common belief among many that there was something amiss about either or both. Watergate went on FOR YEARS until Nixon resigned. It took multiple parallel proceedings in the House, Senate, and judiciary to finally bring Nixon to resign. Remember that Nixon was supported by MANY House and Senate Republicans for more than 2 years, until the totality of Nixon's actions after the burglary and his actions in relation to the Watergate investigation itself (e.g., the Saturday Night Massacre) caught up with him and caused those sycophantic Rs to dump him. This didn't happen in 5 days; rather, it took more than 2 years. And in 1974, the Rs were destroyed in the mid-term elections for their blind allegiance to Nixon (except for those Rs like William Cohen, who were far more principled).

Here, after 5 weeks after the insurrection and a 5 day trial, a Democratically-controlled Congress let a chance slip by to nail trump on forever foreclosing him from holding federal office. Does anyone really think that trump would have benefited from an elongated impeachment conviction trial? I don't. Rather, he would have sunk lower and lower. Remember Benghazi and Watergate and what prolonged investigations did to both HRC (unfairly) and Nixon (completely fairly).

The Senate, controlled by the Ds, could have adjourned the proceedings to allow the House Managers to conduct further investigation. The immediate threat of trump was gone, so there was no need to rush this. This would have allowed the Senate to conduct all the other business of the Senate while the House Managers conducted a full-blown investigation via the Senate proceeding. I am no expert in Congressional procedure, but the Ds could have done the normal work of the Senate and still run the impeachment conviction trial over several months.

I know there is the possibility of other action against trump for the insurrection. But, IMHO, you run all actions parallely to exert the maximum pressure. One pressure point has essentially let trump off the hook. I am very happy with the House Managers, but this should have been the long game to keep exerting all pressure a la Watergate.

DR