Posted on 01/26/2020 1:02:41 AM PST by keat
WASHINGTON - Republicans adopted a new defense strategy this past week at President Donald Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate: boredom.
A top White House aide called the trial "unwatchable," Trump's campaign manager compared the proceedings to watching paint dry, and several Republican senators entertained distractions while downplaying the three-day prosecution as repetitive and unexciting. "They're really not bringing forth new information," Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said of the House impeachment managers Friday.
"I've not heard anything new," added Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.
Barrasso and Scott were among 53 Republican senators who voted 10 times last week to block new evidence and witness testimony, effectively stripping the proceedings of potential novelty and allowing Trump's allies to publicly portray the trial as uninteresting and unimportant.
It's a defense strategy aimed at convincing the public that the third impeachment trial in American history is not worth their time while avoiding substantive questions about Trump's alleged misconduct, said Heather Cox Richardson, who teaches history at Boston College.
"It's definitely a strategy to try to get people to not pay attention," she said. "One of the reasons they're saying 'This is stupid and boring' is because they don't want people to watch."
Some lawmakers have openly shown their disdain for the process - reading books, playing with children's toys, filling out crossword puzzles or wandering from the Senate floor as House Democrats made their case for removing Trump from office.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has also taken care to ensure that it makes for unexciting television, at least in terms of production values. Often just one oddly tilted camera angle is used by cameras controlled by the Senate, since McConnell has not allowed outside television crews or photographers into the chamber.
During breaks in the proceedings, several Republicans told reporters they were unimpressed by the evidence - while sidestepping the fact that they had played a central role in blocking key witnesses and documents from being introduced.
Republicans' "nothing new" mantra underscores the hear-no-evil approach some are taking as they attempt to defend Trump from charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. The approach also foreshadows the difficulty Democrats will face in persuading a handful of Republicans to vote to extend the trial by allowing for critical documents and witnesses to be introduced.
That vote - expected to take place as soon as this week - could determine whether Trump's impeachment trial will be the fastest in American history, potentially ending without testimony from any witnesses.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said the effort to brand the trial as unimaginative and stale while denying access to potentially explosive evidence was "duplicitous."
Monday should kill it. It’s a joke and the American public knows it. It’s over.
American government has turned into a joke. Overall,besides the success of President Trump,the rest of government has done NOTHING since President Trump was elected.
What is a “Toluse Olorunnipa?” Is it an H-1B Journ-o-list?
So, they’re blaming the republicans for democrats not having a case in this long , drawn out, partisan sh— show of theirs.
Funny, I had to look that up too. Turns out to be just a run-of-the-mill hack.
Yip.
“this impeachment is almost as boring as Hillary”
“almost”
Per Ted Cruz if they vote to allow witnesses and documents this trial will go on for weeks to months
If the Democraps wanted these witnesses they should have gone to court over them in the house. Once they get to the senate the discovery process is over. If they had no case after the court decided on executive privilege, then there should have been no impeachment. This is all an ego trip for Shifty.
This article is such BS that it should be put into bags and sold as fertilizer. Talk about a bunch of journalistic bozos and know-nothings, this pair takes the stale cake full of termites.
Too many lies to mention but just put a checkmark need to each of their paragraphs and you will get most of them.
Which Westport is this, Connecticut or some other New England state? I’m too tired to look it up. If it’s a New England paper, other than perhaps the Manchester Union Leader (to which I contributed a few articles many centuries ago), it is not worth wrapping rotten fish in.
So many journalism schools, turning out so many corrupt, ignorant, politically biased and semi-illiterate graduates.
Glad I never went to journalism school, at least now. I’d last about 5 minutes before I started deconstructing some of the teachers. I learned my journalism on the streets of DC and in VN. There were more honest journalists in Nam than there are now at the Wash. Post (which has become Jeff Bezos’ own insane asylum and printing facility).
Westport - nuke it from space just to be sure.
Westport is Connecticut, publishing the Wash. Post’s lunatic articles. That explains it all. One little nutcase of a paper publishing the lunatic writings of a bigger one.
This is called “Leftist media incest”.
In other words, they deployed weaponized facts against the enemy.
Don’t blame the GOP for telling you the truth Fake News.
The US People stopped watching it after the 1st day. There was something like a 30% drop in viewership after the 1st day. The 1st day barely 11 million people watched it.
No one, outside the brain dead Democrat Fascist Party, and their shameless toadies in the Fake News, are buying the lies.
Dude, we completely destroyed 21 hours of boring advocacy with just two hours of pointing out the lies with specificity. Schiff’s new clothes are naked partisanship, and it’s all the latest fashion among Dems. There is a case, alright. To put the lot of you behind bars and hang the worst. See you in November.
Another group project article, eh?
What’s with all the lefty groupwrite these days? Are they uncomfortable doing it alone? Incapable? Not sure if what they’re writing is proggie approved.
“””””””Dude, we completely destroyed 21 hours of boring advocacy with just two hours of pointing out the lies with specificity.”””””””””””””
Yup. I could not watch the schiff show for fear of a brick going through my tv. But I did watch the show on Saturday.
Clear, straight to the point, actual facts were used, etc.
They must have nailed it because I watched cnn and msnbc afterwards and they were going nuts.
while downplaying, funny! still cant that taste of defeat out of your mouths can you?
The senate would be dealing with something other than impeachment for most of that time. The Clinton impeachment trial was on for a few days, then a few weeks "break" while witnesses were obtained and deposed, then back into trial for presentation of the new evidence. No witness appeared in the Senate.
Whether or not the Senate wants additional evidence is up to the Senate. Impeachment trials are hybrid, where senators are advocates, jurors, and judges all at the same time.
There is no legal or procedural force stopping the House from calling witnesses over in the House. Not that testimony would be compelled, just that they can still go through the process they earlier decided to skip. They don't need to get the senate to do the chore. This "pass the buck" is an attempt to shift responsibility, blame, etc. In other words, politics as usual.
-- If they had no case after the court decided on executive privilege, then there should have been no impeachment. --
The only subpoena cases the House took to court were over those fake subpoenas, the ones issued without the whole House expressly authorizing. The committees suing for testimony on those subpoenas withdrew the cases from court. No court has rendered an opinion.
The process here has been sham on top of sham on top of sham; all piled on top of normal inoffensinve presidential conduct.
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