Trump’s Defense Closes Its Case By Saying Impeachment Trial Is A ‘complete Charade’
Manager Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado rebutted the defense’s argument that Trump has been denied due process.
“We had a full presentation of evidence, adversarial presentations, motions. The president was invited to testify. He declined. The president was invited to provide exculpatory evidence. He declined. You can’t claim there’s no due process when you won’t participate in the process,” he said.
He noted that impeachment is separate and distinct from the criminal justice system.
“Why would the constitution include the impeachment power at all, if the criminal justice system serves as a suitable alternative once a President leaves office?” he asked. “It wouldn’t.”
Neguse also sought to address an allegation raised by defense attorneys, that the impeachment trial was rooted in hate. He turned to a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
“This trial is not born from hatred,” said Neguse. “Far from it. It’s born from love of country. Our country. Our desire to maintain it. Our desire to see America at its best.”
On Saturday morning, senators voted to hear from Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler as a witness in the impeachment trial. Later, an agreement allowed a statement by her into the record without calling her.hide caption
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The Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump won’t be hearing from witnesses after all.
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Historical Evaluations And Public Opinion
C-SPAN‘s 2021 President Historians Survey ranked Trump as the fourth-worst president overall, with Trump being rated the worst in the leadership characteristics of Moral Authority and Administrative Skills. Trump’s best rated leadership characteristic was Public Persuasion, where he ranked 32nd out of the 44 individuals who were previously president.
Redirecting Middle East Diplomacy
Donald Trump was far less interested in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a struggle that has outlasted every postwar president and far more in a 22-state outcome, normalizing Israels relations with the Arab world, especially Persian Gulf countries. Building on ties between Israel and key gulf states that had been developing for two decades, and propelled by a common interest in restraining Irans regional ambitions, the Trump administration invested heavily in cultivating close personal relationships with leaders of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It approved weapons sales to those nations, exerted maximum pressure on Tehran and served as a facilitator between gulf Arab nations and Israel.
The costs of such an approach were clear. The Israeli-Palestinian issue wasnt so much ignored as it was undermined by a Trump peace plan comically biased in favor of Israel, leaving it dead on arrival. Meanwhile, Trumps catering to Saudi Arabia allowed its reckless and ruthless crown prince to pursue a disastrous war in Yemen and repression at home with tacit American support. Washington also recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region in a questionable quid pro quo that helped spur Morocco to begin establishing diplomatic ties with Israel.
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Impeachment Is An ‘act Of Political Vengeance’ Trump Lawyer Says
“At no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger,” Michael van der Veen argued, adding that there is “nothing at all in record on this point.” Van der Veen also accused the House impeachment managers of failing to do their due diligence on this issue.
“What the president did know is that there was a violent riot happening at the Capitol,” van der Veen said. “That’s why he repeatedly called via tweet and via video for the riots to stop, to be peaceful, to respect Capitol police and law enforcement and to commit no violence and go home.”
But van der Veen’s argument left senators with additional questions.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who says he is undecided on whether he’ll vote to convict Trump, asked for more details regarding Tuberville’s account of the call with Trump and his tweet railing against Pence.
“Does this show that President Trump was tolerant of the intimidation of Vice President Pence?” Cassidy asked.
But again, van der Veen disputed the sequence of events, calling discussion of Tuberville’s call “hearsay.”
“I have a problem with the facts in the question because I have no idea,” van der Veen responded.
Cassidy told reporters later that he didn’t think his question got a good answer.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, hailed by many for his heroism during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, participates in a the dress rehearsal for Inauguration Day.hide caption
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“History will wait for our decision.”
Allegations Of Inciting Violence
Research suggests Trump’s rhetoric caused an increased incidence of hate crimes. During his 2016 campaign, he urged or praised physical attacks against protesters or reporters. Since then, some defendants prosecuted for hate crimes or violent acts cited Trump’s rhetoric in arguing that they were not culpable or should receive a lighter sentence. In May 2020, a nationwide review by ABC News identified at least 54 criminal cases from August 2015 to April 2020 in which Trump was invoked in direct connection with violence or threats of violence by mostly white men against mostly members of minority groups. On January 13, 2021, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection for his actions prior to the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of his supporters who acted in his name.
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After Speaking Out On Impeachment Herrera Beutler Heads Toward Clash With Her Party
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” he said, “and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
McConnell rebuked Trump for his actions after the insurrection as well.
“He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored,” he continued.
“No. Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily happily as the chaos unfolded,” he said. “Even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in serious danger.”
But McConnell said that the process of impeachment and conviction is a “limited tool” and that he believes Trump is not “constitutionally eligible for conviction.”
“The Constitution gives us a particular role. This body is not invited to act as the nation’s overarching moral tribunal,” he said.
He said that the text of the question of constitutionality is “legitimately ambiguous” and that he “respects” his colleagues for reaching either the conclusion to acquit or convict.
Seven Republicans broke ranks with their party in voting for a conviction.
Michael van der Veen, defense lawyer for former President Donald Trump, gives closing arguments during Trump’s second impeachment trial on February 13, 2021.hide caption
What Did The Trump Administration Do
In July 2019, Mr Barr announced the scheduled executions of five death row prisoners, despite prevailing practices and public opinion.
“Congress has expressly authorised the death penalty,” the country’s top legal official said in a statement at the time. “The justice department upholds the rule of law – and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”
The selected inmates had been convicted of murdering or raping children and the elderly, Mr Barr said.
The move drew fierce criticism from top Democrats and human rights groups.
“We feel is an unconstitutionally arbitrary punishment that should have been abolished decades ago,” said Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NCAAP Legal Defense Fund.
And the particular selection of inmates fuelled charges that the decision was politically motivated.
The first set of executions this summer – during a wave of anti-racism protests and demonstrations – were all of white men. Four of these five prisoners put to death were African American.
Ms Ndulue said she didn’t think it was “coincidental” that no black prisoners were scheduled for execution during a period of “enhanced awareness of the racial disparities around the federal death penalty”.
Research suggests the death penalty has been enforced differently according to race.
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Donald Trump Presidential Cabinet
“The Cabinet” was a group of 16 individuals, including the vice president, who advised the president on matters regarding the executive department that he or she oversaw. An additional seven appointees had Cabinet-rank status. Members were nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The members of President Donald Trump‘s Cabinet at the end of his term appear below. At the beginning of President Trump’s term, the Cabinet consisted of 24 total positions. However, he demoted the Ambassador to the United Nations midway through his term, effective with the departure of Nikki Haley, so his final Cabinet only consisted of 23 positions.
Countering Trump Former President George W Bush To Hold Fundraiser For Liz Cheney
Former President George W. Bush will hold a fundraiser next month for Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican whom former President Donald Trump has been urging Republicans to defeat in a primary next year.
Bush is scheduled to host the event for Cheney the daughter of his former vice president, Dick Cheney in Dallas on Oct. 18, and other members of his administration are expected to attend, including former advisers Karl Rove and Karen Hughes.
The event was first reported by Politico, and a source familiar with the plans confirmed them to NBC News.
The news comes less than two weeks after Trump endorsed Harriet Hageman in the Republican primary, saying she’s running for “America first” and “against warmonger and disloyal Republican, Liz Cheney.”
Cheney responded to the endorsement by tweeting, “Bring it.”
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Ending The Mortgage Interest Deduction
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which President Donald Trump signed in December 2017, significantly reduced the importance of the mortgage interest deduction for owner-occupied housing an overdue change that makes the tax system more efficient and equitable.
In general, taxpayers choose to take a standard deduction or to itemize various expenses. Mortgage interest, which constitutes a substantial part of many homeowners monthly housing payments, is among those deductible expenses. But the 2017 law substantially raised the standard deduction, decreasing the incentive to itemize: The of homeowners taking the mortgage interest deduction promptly tumbled from 21 percent in 2017 to 9 percent in 2018.
The deduction has essentially served as a subsidy for the upper middle class that encourages people to buy overly large homes, driving up housing prices. Its defended on the grounds that it encourages homeownership, but numerous studies suggest that it doesnt partly because first-time homeowners often either dont itemize or are in low tax brackets.
Once seen as a middle-class birthright, the deduction is now largely the province of the rich: In 2018, nearly 80 percent of the benefit went to households earning in the top 20 percent. Eliminating the deduction entirely and perhaps creating a tax credit for first-time home buyers is the next logical reform. But Trump oversaw a good first step.
How Early Trump Supporters Feel Now
The former presidents 2015 backers, in their own words
About the author: Conor Friedersdorf is a California-based staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.
Now that Donald Trumps presidency is over, how do the Americans who supported him at the beginning of his political run feel about his performance in the Oval Office? I put that question to 30 men and women who wrote to me in August 2015 to explain their reasons for backing his insurgent candidacy.
Among the eight who replied, all in the second week of January, after the storming of the Capitol, some persist in supporting Trump others have turned against him still others have lost faith in the whole political system. They do not constitute a representative sample of Trump voters. But their views, rendered in their own words, offer more texture than polls that tell us an approval rating.
As I did in 2015, Ill let the Trump voters have their say. But this time Ill conclude with some thoughts of my own, in my capacity as a Trump critic who knows that Americans have no choice but to coexist, as best we can, because our political and ideological differences are never going away.
And now?
The third correspondent told me in 2015 that hed vote for Trump, despite knowing that he would do a terrible job:
His assessment today:
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Murkowski Voted To Convict Trump Now She’ll Run Against A Candidate He Backs
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the Republicans’ Senate campaign committee for 2022, has indicated the party should focus on economic issues, education concerns and Biden’s travails. When asked about Trump’s insistence on having GOP candidates in 2022 promote his claims about 2020, Scott says, “Americans are focused on the future” and adds: “We’re not going to talk about the last election.”
On the same day as Scott’s interview, Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei, reporting on Republicans who were “slowly but surely charting a post-Trump ideology and platform.”
These are, for now, straws in the wind. Among those he calls “my base,” Trump remains the Alpha Male he has always cast himself to be.
No one commands his legions quite the way he does.
All acknowledge he brought new energy and millions of new voters to the Republican cause. He largely remade the federal judiciary in the image of the conservative Federalist Society. He cut taxes.
But he also lost the House, the Senate and the White House in the course of just one term. No president in either party had done that after such a short time in office since Herbert Hoover did so nearly a century ago.
Moreover, in the next year, as Youngkin goes from “new kid in town” to “favorite get” for conservative media and the adjudication of Jan. 6 drags on everywhere else, Rick Scott’s advice for his party’s candidates is likely to look better and better.
Here’s What Trump Will Do Next
After the shocking and contemptible storming of the Capitol incited by the president of the United States, two things are still certain. First, 11 days from nowon Wednesday, Jan. 20Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Joe Biden as our 46th president.
Donald Trump says he wont attend the inauguration, , but its also certain on that same dayand this is the second pointhe will become ex-President Trump.
And then what will Trump do?
It says a great deal about the man and our times that this question looms as large as asking what President Joe Biden will do. Can you imagine?
Before this week I would have said that Trump running for president in 2024 was somewhere between plausible and likely, with him even having a chance of winning. But after the Jan. 6th Beer Belly Putsch, and the resulting implosion of Trump’s world , that is much less likely. Still, you never ever know when it comes to politics, and regardless Trump, more tarnished than ever and probably hounded by litigation, will remain a giant figure in our lives.
Talk about uncharted territory.
My position with Trump is that all precedents have no meaning with him, says David Pietrusza, historian and author of numerous books on presidential elections and administrations. You can throw the history books out the window and can throw the historians like me out the window.
Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: .
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