Impeachment is a political process, not about rule of law. He has already fundamentally damaged politics in our country. All but 5 Bubba lick cans having voted to abandon the constitutional accountability for the president at the end of his term is evidence enough.
Grateful Dead?
That is an interesting piece of history. The paralells to now are striking 
Yet again, historical evidence that people on the side of decency are attacked by intolerant bigoted people. The party names have reversed in name since then, but the people who held the ideas are framed the same way.
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Make it secret but entrust it to the weakest of servers.
Another motivation for departure of two legal teams may have been Trump’s insistence they argue that the election was stolen, effectively justifying the incitement and rebellion. Since the stolen-election story has been shot down 60 times by GOP-stocked courts both at state and federal level, it’s a non-starter as a legal strategy.
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It’s only a short step from that to “I had no other recourse than to cause a riot.”
He wants them to bring up all “the election was stolen” arguments, which is basically conceding he approved of the riot, that it was justified. Its like he doesnt get it that the riot is why he’s being impeached. Or dumb as he is he thinks he still has a chance of reversing his loss if he just makes the same disproven arguments one more time in front of the senate.
(Edited to add: or possibly Trump knows there arent enough votes to impeach so why not spew that same nonsense again on the big stage, it helps him keep his stranglehold on the GOP.)
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please represent yourself, please represent yourself
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voters need to know how legislators vote on legislation, but impeachment has a different purpose
the venue where voters express opinions about public officials is the election
impeachment is a venue for the legislature to express an independent judgment of those officials
without a secret ballot, and with legislators being “accountable to the electorate,” there is no way for the legislature to hold a president to a higher standard of behavior than the voters do
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I would love to see some lawyer take his case and deliberately make horrible, embarrassing legal arguments that make it even more difficult for Republicans to defend Trump. Maybe there’s some lawyer out there willing to throw himself on his sword for the good of the country. Like if he or she has millions saved and just wants to retire and grow vegetables and flowers on some quiet rural estate, so getting disbarred would be a non issue.
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If recent history is any indication they won’t even be held accountable for their own actions.
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Why would Trump spend more than a two cents on lawyers for this thing? The odds of enough Republicans voting to impeach him to actually have it stick is pretty much the same as Trump actually paying a lawyer.
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I wonder if they’ll make it all the way to the trial?
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The fact that the previous such instance of this kind of dynamic was the run-up to a civil war has me worried…
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These and my thoughts consolidated:
It’s like someone who insists on representing themselves while their lawyer is standing right there. If he goes in with that and they lose, as they most assuredly will, he’s going to blame his lawyers. They have provided counsel but they cannot provide effective counsel.
That’s interesting. Could his ego handle it? Would it be like a sorry not sorry, resigning not resigning?
Good reminder. Thank you! And for my part I’ll try to spend the next four years being a little less sludgy.
I went looking for another clip but this is better:
Oh, he won’t.
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in order to use a “justification defense” you have to state that you did it.
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Yeah, that’s the sad truth of this. They’re going to acquit him, not because he isn’t guilty - they know he is - but because they want his rabid base to vote for them.
But it’s a true Leopard-Face scenario.
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How many Scaramuccis are there until the trial starts?
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Is that the new name for a New York Minute unit?
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