American Democracy Just Took A Shotgun Shot To The Face

Today is a shameful day to be an American. What happened in the Senate last night offends truth and spits on the constitution.

In case you missed it, the Senate voted against hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial. The final vote was 51-49, with two Republican senators joining the Democrats who voted for witnesses. Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine both voted to hear from witnesses. You could call this bravery, or you could call it an effort to save face. Collins is from a purple state and is up for reelection in November. Romney had long been critical of Trump, and wants to seem like he can think for himself. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, both seen as potential swing votes, sided with republicans in refusing to allow witnesses to testify.

Have you EVER heard of a trial that didn’t have any witnesses? These 51 feckless Republicans are engaging in one of the most democratically damaging, partisan coverups in the history of our nation, for a president that they don’t like deep down anyway. Republicans DON’T like Donald Trump, they’re afraid of him. This vote will be seen as a point of inflection by future historians studying how the great American experiment went wrong. It is a vote that will permanently shift the balance of power from three coequal branches of government towards dictatorship. We are on a slippery slope, and the Senate just tore down the guardrails.

Some important things that happened during the “trial”:

Trump’s lawyer, Alan Dershowitz (who also represented Jeffery Epstein and OJ Simpson, FYI) argued that a president cannot be impeached for doing something to help his own reelection if he believes that his reelection is in the national interest. This is what those of us in the industry refer to as a “blank check”. Basically, this translates to “he can’t be impeached for anything, ever”.

Trump’s defenders also claimed that if the argument against him is so strong, the prosecutors shouldn’t need any witnesses to prove their case. Wild.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio claims that even though the president’s actions do warrant impeachment, he shouldn't necessarily be impeached. Translation: the rules only apply to some people some of the time.

Republican Senator Rand Paul tried to have SCOTUS Chief Justice and presiding officer over the impeachment trial John Roberts read the whistleblower’s name on national television. Roberts refused. Paul then said the alleged whistleblower’s name twice in interviews, because he’s a shitty person.

A bipartisan group of senators asked the president’s team to promise that Trump wouldn’t use private citizens to conduct foreign policy in the future, referring to Rudy Giuliani’s role in the Ukraine scandal. The president’s lawyers responded by saying that Giuliani wasn’t conducting foreign policy, he was just in Ukraine doing personal business for Trump. Which, might I point out, UNDERMINES THE WHOLE FUCKING ARGUMENT THAT TRUMP WASN’T NEGOTIATING WITH UKRAINE FOR PERSONAL GAIN.