The Senate resumed its trial on Saturday, February 13th at 10:00 am. Soon, came the revelation of an exchange between Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler's (R-Wash.) on January 6th with House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), regarding his telephone conversation with Donald Trump during the storming of Congress. What followed was a call for witnesses by a Senate vote of 55-45. Eureka! The window for Republican witnesses previously rejected by Democratic House Managers was reopened. There was another chance to overcome Speaker Pelosi's desire for a quick trial without witnesses.
Then came another reversal pressed by President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Democratic leaders told the House managers to huddle privately with Trump's defense lawyers to strike a deal. They did. They would place a mere statement from Rep. Beutler into the trial record and call no witnesses. The Republicans couldn't have been more delighted, knowing that the Democratic leadership wanted the trial over that day before Congress went on a weeklong vacation.
Before the deal, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) predicted on NPR that there would be a call for witnesses, requiring a deferral of the trial for two weeks. How mistaken he was about his party's defeatism and rejection of going forward with a full hand.
They could have added to their single impeachment Article of inciting an insurrection, two more articles -- intimidating Mike Pence and others plus Trump's refusal to call back the attackers during their riot. Those three articles would have made for a more powerful case against Trump's defense attorneys, in the opinion of former federal judge Michael McConnell.
An even stronger impeachment and one deterring future wannabe Trumps was to pair the president's physical attack on the Capitol with his four-year institutional attack on the Congress with his constant usurpation of the legislative branch's constitutional authority (some noted above).
For reasons yet to be divulged, the Democrats, as they did with the first impeachment of Trump, were unwilling to use the full evidence subpoena powers they possess. Trump can now run again, vitiating the rule of law and debasing our democratic institutions. As Republican strategist Kevin Philips noted years ago, the Republicans go for the jugular while the Democrats go for the capillaries.
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