When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits — despotic in his ordinary demeanour — known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty — when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity — to join in the cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day — It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.’
The House managers did a really good job, including using the above quote, presenting their case for the conviction and removal from office of the 45th president* of the United States. All of the managers were impressive, but Adam Schiff stood out brightly. He is a gifted speaker and made a compelling case.
Even some from the other side of the aisle praised him. Surprisingly, Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said to Schiff and to the president* that Schiff did a "good job," and Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL), among others, also praised the managers' 21-hour presentation. But no matter how well-presented, and how compelling the damning evidence, GOPers will still be like:
In the end, Schiff very effectively challenged the Senate to do the right thing. He talked about moral courage after quoting Robert F. Kennedy who said, "Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle...." Schiff was quite powerful when he asserted that moral courage "comes not from disagreeing with your opponents but from disagreeing with your friends."
His final argument is worth the listen. Here is the full 48-minute final argument from Friday, and below, a snippet from the end of Thursday.
"Give America a fair trial. She's worth it."
Schiff's final comments from Thursday. Powerful stuff. "Right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise we are lost."
One of the points the House managers made very plainly, which has been spoken among us for a long time but hasn't been spoken in the hallowed halls of Congress: "He is a dictator." Chairman Jerry Nadler said, “He does not have to respect the Congress. He does not have to respect the representatives of the people. Only his will goes. He is a dictator. This must not stand.”
Chairman Adam Schiff also evoked those strong dictator-y words when he controversially relayed reporting that 45 had warned Senators against voting against him, allegedly saying he'll "have their head on a pike." How king-like of you, Sir tRump! (GOP Senators were not pleased with him saying this.)
Another great moment was when Schiff laid out the predicted defense arguments, calling out TЯUMP for having "a pretty thin skin." Watch:
It was an apt prediction. Indeed, during their short 2-hour opening argument on Saturday morning, the defense evoked Schiff's paraphrasing, and showed the clip of Schiff summarizing the transcript, which very clearly showed that he was paraphrasing.
The defense presented for just two hours on Saturday. IMPOTUS was pretty upset about the timing of the defense's opening statements, coming on Saturday morning. He tweeted mournfully, "looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V."
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| Barry Blitt, The New Yorker |
We're all just actors in the National Reality Show that he is directing.
I half-listened to the defense during the two hour opening. If I paid full attention I probably would've done some damage to something. But I have a couple observations.
One of the defense's first points during Saturday morning's opening was that the impeachment assertion of abuse of power in withholding aid was based on testimony from people "who didn't speak directly to the President." Great point, fellas. Howsabout letting us hear from people who spoke directly to the President?!
And their presentation was not at all polished. The lawyers kept referring to "page xyz of so-and-so's testimony." Honey, the Senators are barely staying awake for the proceedings. They are not going to go look up your evidence! Show your work! This was how the House managers excelled. Their clear descriptions and multimedia presentations were outstanding.
The "defense" consists of the same tired arguments. The whole impeachment is a corrupt attempt to undo the 2016 election; the procedures were unfair and cloaked in secrecy; there was no quid pro quo; no harm, no foul: Ukraine got their damn dinero; and best of all: the Constitution is unconstitutional when it allows Congressional oversight to the Executive branch.
Edited to add this fact checker from FactCheck.org. It'll come in real handy as 45's lawyers mount their
Side bits:
The Senate rules forbid journalists from being in the chamber as they are accustomed, so they are viewing above from the gallery. Cameras and TV cameras, other than CSPAN's official stationary camera trained on the speaker, are not allowed. So, some media outlets have sketch artists to capture the scene. Here are a couple sketches from Art Lien of the New York Times. Follow the link for more. Good stuff.
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| Art Lien |
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| Art Lien |
Other news:
New video came out. You can hear SCROTUS talking to "I don't know the guy" Lev Parnas, talking about firing Ambassador Yavonovich. The conversation occurred about a year before the actual firing and the Ukrainian scheme. It is an excellent illustration of how goombas are able to manipulate SCROTUS and get their objectives met. The scheme to get rid of Yavonovich started with Parnas wanting her gone for his own reasons. He and his fellow goon Igor Frumen wanted to get into the energy biz in the then-corrupt Ukraine. Their business name (and I couldn't make this up if I tried) was "Fraud Guarantee." One of them had interest in a club called "Mafia Rave."
Here's the video from the dinner. Listen to how Lev skillfully pushes SCROTUS's ego buttons, saying that Yavonovich was talking trash about him. It was a lie, but effective in angering 45, who called for her firing immediately. She was fired about a year later as part of the Ukrainian shakedown.
Full video:
The bit between Parnas and Poop-Head, with reporting from ABC News:
See, here's the thing. Evidence like this is going to keep dribbling out. The Senate can allow what we know to exist now, with proper witness testimony under oath and subject to cross-examination, or we can all read about it in the New York Times or John Bolton's new book. More and more evidence is going to come, and these spineless Senators will be deeper and deeper into the black slime that's on the wrong side of history.
Next week: the defense. And though the House managers won't have a rebuttal or final argument, they can fashion questions into a de facto rebuttal during the question portion of the trial. And perhaps, hope against hope, Schiff's dare to the Senate will come to fruition and they'll allow witnesses: "Give America a fair trial. She's worth it."
Finally, here's a little more reading about The Schiff Show. And here's one more. I'm pretty proud of my fellow Californian.
Now, go: contact your Senators and/or the Senate switchboard (202-224-3121) and demand witnesses and evidence. And tomorrow, call again.
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