Emotional Reactions
The Wall Street Journal reports Videos Draw Emotional Reactions From Senators at Trump Impeachment Trial
A tense silence fell over the Senate chamber as House impeachment managers showed a video presentation of the attack on the Capitol.
Some Senators seemed shaken by a video of a rioter who broke into Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D.,Calif.) office with a stun gun and called her “b—” afterward.
“Wow,” said Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.). Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), who voted with Democrats to proceed with the trial, shook his head, and jotted down some notes.
New Audio and Video Footage
Senator’s Comments
- Sen. James Lankford (R., Okla.) said “It’s tough to be able to walk through that”
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“It’s very damning,” said Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), as he left the chamber.
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“It tears at your heart and brings tears to your eyes,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah). “Overwhelmingly distressing and emotional.”
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“Graphic. Disgusting,” said Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.).
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“The footage is horrific,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas). “We all witnessed a terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) said the House managers were “very effective ” and did “a good job connecting the dots.” Thune also noted “the President’s Twitter feed is a matter of public record.”
Nonetheless, Cruz stuck to his wooden view Cruz that the impeachment prosecutors did not connect the rioters’ criminality to the former president.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Missouri) proved what an ass he is by saying the trial is “completely unconstitutional and complete and total waste of the Senate’s time.”
Video Matters
Many senators, serving as jurors, appeared to be riveted and emotional as videos brought back the events of that day. House managers played audio of a terrified officer saying, “They have breached the scaffold, they are behind our lines.” They showed pro-Trump rioters bursting into the Capitol saying “stop the count,” converging at the threshold of the House floor with chants of “we want Trump,” and one rioter telling another who had called for no violence “it’s too late for that.” Another rioter could be heard calling out “Where are you Nancy?” and others could be heard chanting “Hang Mike Pence.” Managers played video of the fatal shooting of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt as she tried to climb through a shattered window into the House lobby, and closed their predinner session by playing a single clip of Officer Daniel Hodges letting out a bone-chilling cry as rioters trapped him in between two doors, blood dripping from his mouth as he struggled to breathe.
Rioters 58 Steps From Fleeing Senators
Rioters Within Feet of Vice President Pence
Defense Pathetic
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R.) calls Bruce Castor’s Performance in Impeachment Trial ‘Unthinkable’.
“That’s a prosecutor’s dream come true, for a defense lawyer to stand up during opening and say, ‘Wow, wasn’t that something? Boy, that was so powerful, we changed strategy,’” said Christie, who served as U.S. attorney for his state from 2002 to 2008.
At one point on Tuesday, the opening day of Trump’s second impeachment trial, Castor seemed to be so impressed with the House impeachment managers’ presentation that the defense team changed course on its strategy. To everyone’s surprise, he admitted as much on the Senate floor.
“I’ll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers’ presentation was well done,” Castor said.
“I mean, it is unthinkable to do something like that,” Christie said. “Even if you think it, you don’t say it.”
Law and Order
It is quite clear that most Republicans do not give a damn about the Constitution or law and order.
Nor did Trump.
Cruz and Hawley are hoping to be anointed by head cultist Trump.
I am far more impressed by those willing to buck the party than those brainwashed by the cult.
Looking Ahead
Perhaps there is some benefit four years from now for casting your lot with an aging 74-year old has-been or soon to be has-been, but what then?
Trump will be gone soon enough and I still believe even sooner politically.
Tax fraud and most likely other criminal trials of Trump will soon begin.
Factoring in age, it is a serious mistake to cast your lot with that, no matter how much the cultists adore Trump.
Perhaps that is the motivation of some of the Republicans speaking out, but they come across as honest and sincere, a rarity.
Mish
absurd liberal theatre…..the democrats are insanity defined. For 4 years they said Trumps son should be molested, held up heads of trump cut off, wanted to stand above him dead, asked for chaos….only sheep vote for liberals…..sheeple of the US….a growing disease…blind and brainless….
It’s a ridiculous. Instead of trying to understand why people might be so mad that this happened they are blaming it in on their scape goat for the past 4 years. If they would try to understand that almost half the population thinks they are tearing our country apart and work to govern us all with some compromised solutions they will be a lot safer!
My 4 month old baby has more fortitude than most of those congress people I saw speaking and he certainly cries a lot less. It’s very disheartening
I would agree that it’s disappointing. There is no disagreement about the facts. It’s very depressing that so few people are capable of putting aside politics and their chosen party, and simply doing their duty, upholding the Constitution. The argument “well, he did it in January, so he should be allowed to get away with anything, because by the time we can address it, he’ll be out of office” is stupid. The Senate should just do the right thing, and convict him, and then move on to more important things, and it should be unanimous.
The fact that even 1 Senator would vote to acquit is appalling, but worse is that they are doing out of a foolish sense of partisanship, and that partisanship will destroy the party, and the country. If Trump were to be convicted, the Republican Party could heal, just as they did after Nixon. Just six years after Nixon resigned, Reagan won easily. But, no, Trump will be acquitted, and that means that the Republican Party will not heal. They will be the party that stands for evil, and the party that thinks coup attempts are perfectly Ok.
In the decade ahead, we will no longer see Democrats having any need to run to the center. With only a fractured, broken opponent, they can don whatever they want. Eventually Trump’s impact will fade, and the Republican Party may rise again, though by then it may be too late to matter. I’m not happy about the liberal Democrat agenda, but I have no choice but to tolerate it, if the alternative is a party that not only tolerates evil, but one that actively embraces it. And that, right there, is why 81 million people voted for Biden, if you haven’t figured that out, yet Yes, Trump will be acquitted, and yes, the country will be the worse for it.
Completely agree.
Agree….I don’t think any of it matters at all to most people..and those who do care already have strong opinions that aren’t going to change….
To me the significance of the impeachment was only ever about whether the Dems could get a conviction and keep Trump from ever running again.
I hear many reasonable people…Mish among them…who say Trump is done, stick a fork in him…….but I’m not so sure….I want to believe he’s done….but I worry about his influence going forward. History teaches us that it pays not to underestimate people like Trump.
I’m curious how many people are actually watching any of this beyond political junkies?
When I go out for lunch the restaurants are always showing sports or funny YouTube videos on the wall of TV’s (ie never CNN or other news networks). Went to the dentist the other day and the TV’s there in all the cleaning rooms + waiting room were showing episodes of property brothers.
Virtually no one watches the 6 or 11 oclock news anymore. Everyone I know seems to watch Netflix (or other streaming service) and/or sports.
Among the group of friends I see 2x a week for beer league hockey (2 different teams) no one is talking about it before/after the game. Conversation is about sports or Covid (ie how their kids are doing bad in school cause they are home type thing) or the usual stuff about finding good help for home renovations / good Doctor/Dentist / trendy places to eat. Taking about election stuff ended in early to mid Dec once Trumps challenges were clearly going to fail.
I also wonder how few people will be swayed by anything said/done during this trial. I would be willing to wager 95-99% of the people have already made up their minds about it.
For people interested in tracking the prices of single family real estate over time, or even just looking at the way the value of your own home, it’s fun to play around on a site like Zillow. They have enough data now to track most estimated property values back ten years
Go to the interactive price history chart.
You can draw a straight line to take out the bumps…and come up with a nice graph that will give you a fairly accurate picture of your average yearly price appreciation. You will need a percentage calculator if you’re not used to calculating percentages…but they are widely available.
I looked at two of my properties last night….one in the north suburbs and one down south…..they were pretty close…both have had between 11-12% price appreciation when graphed over the last 9 years. My personal residence is also just above 11%/year.
Here, since 2009, the curve has been remarkably consistent. I suspect the trend is not much different for the prior ten years, even though we had a dip post-2008.
A good exercise would be to create a graphic that would track this trend against CPI…and to show the relationship between Fed measured inflation…and show how the (locked in) mortgage interest rate changes one’s equity equation if interest rates rise.
Not sure I can I’m handy enough with graphing to make that happen, but I think it would be interesting to look at….and valuable……and also it would an interesting app to program….if anybody out there in RE knows of one that exists already, please let me know.
“the way the value of your own home changes over time” …..damn the edit function.
Attempts to link to Zillow get scrubbed apparently…..but you just enter an address and scroll down to Home Value and click “details” to get the graph.
The USD is still trying to make up its mind this morning. Gold and silver are testing resistance. If the dollar starts falling again it’s off to the races, imho. I still vote head fake until I’m proven wrong..
A falling dollar will juice equities too. We really are right on this important line in the sand this week. It will interesting to see which way the dollar goes.
Wow, talking economics on a site dedicated to “Global Economic Trend Analysis”. What a refreshing concept!!
Mish doesn’t mind if we occasionally talk about money and markets, I don’t think.
🙂
Feel free to join the discussion.
Mish:
Disagree most Republicans don’t care about law and order!
Not fair at all.
Republicans own this one
Agree, we own this, but these were not ‘most republicans’ any more than antifa represents most demo’s
General Ripper still under the Trump KoolAid influence…Take the ownership and stop blaming antifa.
Hard to argue with the high rate of approval in Republicans for the serial law breaker and order disruptor that Trump.
If this country were majority Republican, we would have King Trump (and his royal family).
flip the script and the Rs would literally be incessantly screaming Bloody F***ing Murder. do you disagree with that?
If most Republicans care about that then let’s hear them. Their silence is deafening.
Horrible actions by the rioters. Unpresidential election lies by Trump. It’s still not legally incitement. Censure is merited; impeachment is pointless theater. Still not quite a fair election if the media hid Hunter laptop stories and prevented its dissemination, and spends 50% of its time attacking Republicans and their ideas. While votes cast do not indicate a stolen election in that sense, there is a deep skew in coverage, change of voting rules and clamping down on “misinformation” as judged by one party, while that same party’s misinformation gets amplified (collusion, soft on Russia, systemic racism, mostly peaceful protests, bounties on soldiers, kids in cages, emoluments, no taxes paid, death by police, etc…)
Trump invited groups recognized as domstic terrorits, enaged in rehtoric inciting them for months. Trump did everything but order them to action. Of course it was planned and incitement. The most dammig evidence was what happened after. Trump did nothig. If the insurectionists were a Chinese invading force or BLM Trump would have responded quite differently. Instead he waited several hours and told them they were special and he loves them
what is your definition of legal incitement?
Apparently, it should be 4 blind mice…
It wasn’t just the media that “hid” the Hunter laptop story…it was Barrs Department of “Justice”. Don’t you get it? There is no “there” there. Barr filed no charges because there was no crime. Or was he part of the “deep state” too?
Another moron under the Trump KoolAid influence…No your hero needs to go straight to the can…
I was going to disagree with mish on this… But calling pelosi a bitch. My god they’ve really crossed the line.
i disliked Pelosi for years but the more I thought about it the more I realized the attacks were misogenystic
So calling the president a Nazi, traitor, (and much worse that I can’t recall) is fine. But calling the witch a bitch is crossing the line….. my, my, the hypocrisy and doublethink!! how can your head not explode!
LOL Fake indignation ! ….Ain t this exactly what your exceptional nation has been doing for at least 2 decades, in none of your business, far away places, orchestrating coups against legitimate leaders ? Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Venezuela etc ….You got a taste of your own medicine this time, GREAT…. and don t exaggerate things, the run on your Sacred Corruption Temple was rather peaceful, all things well considered, ..they could ve burnt that mthrfckr down, had they really wanted to….Hypocrites !
reap what ye sow
Still waiting for your assault on Berlaymont…
I’d like to buy 2 u’s and 2 e’s.
If something was wrong the last four years certainly did not fix it but more to the point I suspect we’d not even agree on the illness.
I had concerns going into the trial of how the optics would play of a Trump acquittal by the Senate but after viewing two days of the trial that concern is assuaged. The public will largely come to the correct conclusion even if the majority of Republican Senators cannot. There is value in the presentation which is airing on all the networks including FOX and for a week the Republican base is seeing what happened not colored by the lens of Sean Hannity and the likes
The public should, and probably will, come to the conclusion that justice is a hackneyed term….and that one set of rules applies to ordinary people…..but not to important politicians and the powerful…….who can and will continue to get away with murder.
Seems Trump is not gone since posting often more than once daily about him seems so paramount. Now you have Biden. Concentrate your efforts on him. Or is it that there is nothing to report about?
Trump elected was a symptom what is wrong with the good ol’ US of America and I see the same problems still effecting the country.
Going after him solves nothing, it just makes the divide stronger.
If something was wrong the last four years certainly did not fix it but more to the point I suspect we’d not even agree on the illness.
You really need to find out more about the country and its history–and then you might realize what the historic importance of this episode is.
You want a consequence-free outcome for Trump?
Then why bother talking about Biden–Trump already had done more and worse. Whatever Biden does, up to overthowing the next vote is without reproach also.
You just exposing your own bias.
Money talks – It’s for the clicks/traffic. You can see that even when the article isn’t about Trump there are certain people in the comments that can’t help themselves but bring him up.
Seems Trump is not gone since posting often more than once daily about him seems so paramount. Now you have Biden. Concentrate your efforts on him. Or is it that there is nothing to report about?
Trump elected was a symptom what is wrong with the good ol’ US of America and I see the same problems still effecting the country.
Going after him solves nothing, it just makes the divide stronger.
Republicans will hide behind the flawed view impeachment is not constitutional. They are simply too afraid of Trump’s hold on Republican voters.
House Managers are very effective. They’re best point however will not be in connecting the dots but in showing Trump did nothing to stop the violence.
I knew the attack was planned before but I had no idea how much planning went into it. The house managers were thorough and effective in building the timeline. No doubt Trump planned an insurrection and lit the fuse. He did everything but order it.
Lindsey Graham had a different take. Said Republicans found the house manager presentation “offensive ” and “absurd “