Thursday, February 04, 2021

House Managers Ask Trump To Testify (He Should Be Relentlessly Mocked And Taunted And Called A Coward Until He Does)


Not Only Are Trump's Lawyers Unable To Correctly Spell "United States" . . .

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Dare Trump To Testify
Tim Miller, The Bulwark, February 2, 2021
Donald Trump attempted to overthrow an election and install himself as an autocrat.

This is an inconvenient truth for congressional Republicans who were complicit in the scheme—the 147 representatives and senators who . . . helped propagate Trump's lies—so they want his impeachment trial to be about something else. Anything else.  . . .

Having Trump and those close to him testify under oath about the president's actions and lies leading up to January 6 is fertile ground for the Democrats, for two reasons.

1) The fact pattern around Trump's attempt to overthrow our democracy is long and damning and anytime Republicans are asked about it they like to elide the details, pretending they weren't really on board for the particulars. But Trump was serious and literal about the coup, then and now. This tension makes things awkward for Republicans.

2) Most Senate Republicans aren't in a position to disavow Trump's stolen election lies because their voters think that they are eternal truths provided to them by the Mango Moroni on gold lamé tablets. They want their representatives to Fight for Trump, not nitpick his narrative. . . .

[D]emand he testify at the scene of the crime. . . .

The article of impeachment sent over from the House covers a range of Trump's related misdeeds, including some that are much less subjective than incitement. Threatening state election officials and telling them to find votes is not a gray area. Holding meetings about firing Justice Department officials who won't go along with the plot is not a gray area. Repeatedly making provably false claims about fraud in support of an effort to overturn the election result is not a gray area. . . .

[Republican] weaseling will become all but impossible if Trump himself is there to confirm his own transgressions. . . . Trump's congenital inability to acknowledge defeat or even attempt a face-saving lie about how he didn't really want to steal the election puts Republican senators in a completely untenable situation.
The same personality disorder that prevents Trump from admitting defeat should also be used to urge his testimony.

He should be repeatedly called out as a coward and worse if he refuses to take the stand in his own defense. Trump will become apoplectic if he is derided and taunted and mocked without having the White House bully pulpit and a united Republican caucus to defend him as he did during the last impeachment. . . .

Republicans want to play cute with the facts or avoid admitting to the coup motivations in the lead-up to January 6, [but] the president's own testimony will pull the rug out from under them.

Plus Trump's very presence would increase the emotional valence and drama around the proceedings. The coup-neutral Republicans benefit from letting time sand away at the raw emotions of Insurrection Day. That's harder to do when the man responsible for the mob is forced to answer for it in a scene that is without precedent in American history.

Too often Trump has been able to run out the clock on his scandals . . . This is a time to hold his feet to the fire. He must not be allowed to try to end American democracy without having to answer for it.

The United States Capitol was besieged by a mob of Trump's own creating. He should be dared to stand and testify in that very building and reap what he sowed.

Republicans Assume Everyone Is As Stupid And Gullible As Their Own Supporters
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