02-11-2021, 10:13 AM
(CNN)The second day of former President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial was dominated by a detailed and damning documentation of the events leading up to the January 6 riot at the US Capitol by the House impeachment managers.
For hours on Wednesday afternoon, a series of Democratic House members -- from Colorado's Joe Neguse to Texas' Joaquin Castro -- laid out the tweets and public comments from Trump that laid the foundation for the Big Lie that culminated in the violent overrunning of the Capitol on January 6.
I watched the proceedings -- and took notes on what mattered most. My takeaways are below.
1. Trump is his own worst enemy: Yes, the House impeachment managers did a good job of making their case. But in truth, Trump himself did a lot of the work for them. His tweets. His speeches. His media interviews. There was just so much of it. And time after time, Trump left nothing to the imagination. He said the election was rigged. He told his supporters that they were going to have to fight like hell to keep hold of democracy. He refused to agree to the peaceful handover of power if he lost. Over and over again. And the House managers just poured Trump's own words and tweets into the lap of every single senator sitting in the chamber. All of that evidence directly from Trump's mouth -- and keyboard-typing fingers -- makes it hard for any Republican to suggest that this is purely a partisan political proceeding without any "there" there. This wasn't the House impeachment managers putting words in Trump's mouth. This was just him -- talking and tweeting and talking some more.
2. Liz Cheney: A week after the Wyoming Republican survived a challenge to her leadership slot in the House GOP, her words in explaining why she was voting to impeach Trump were used, again, by Democrats to make the case for why he needed to be convicted. "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," said Neguse in summarizing what Trump had done -- a direct quotation from Cheney's statement of January 12. Neguse wrapping Cheney's statement like an anchor around the waists of every single Republican senator is what the likes of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California feared most following the House impeachment. Cheney's vote was one thing. Her statement -- particularly the line that Neguse quoted -- was, for many Republicans, something entirely different because they felt it would allow Democrats to bash every single Republican member with it. And they were right.
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For hours on Wednesday afternoon, a series of Democratic House members -- from Colorado's Joe Neguse to Texas' Joaquin Castro -- laid out the tweets and public comments from Trump that laid the foundation for the Big Lie that culminated in the violent overrunning of the Capitol on January 6.
I watched the proceedings -- and took notes on what mattered most. My takeaways are below.
1. Trump is his own worst enemy: Yes, the House impeachment managers did a good job of making their case. But in truth, Trump himself did a lot of the work for them. His tweets. His speeches. His media interviews. There was just so much of it. And time after time, Trump left nothing to the imagination. He said the election was rigged. He told his supporters that they were going to have to fight like hell to keep hold of democracy. He refused to agree to the peaceful handover of power if he lost. Over and over again. And the House managers just poured Trump's own words and tweets into the lap of every single senator sitting in the chamber. All of that evidence directly from Trump's mouth -- and keyboard-typing fingers -- makes it hard for any Republican to suggest that this is purely a partisan political proceeding without any "there" there. This wasn't the House impeachment managers putting words in Trump's mouth. This was just him -- talking and tweeting and talking some more.
2. Liz Cheney: A week after the Wyoming Republican survived a challenge to her leadership slot in the House GOP, her words in explaining why she was voting to impeach Trump were used, again, by Democrats to make the case for why he needed to be convicted. "The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack," said Neguse in summarizing what Trump had done -- a direct quotation from Cheney's statement of January 12. Neguse wrapping Cheney's statement like an anchor around the waists of every single Republican senator is what the likes of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California feared most following the House impeachment. Cheney's vote was one thing. Her statement -- particularly the line that Neguse quoted -- was, for many Republicans, something entirely different because they felt it would allow Democrats to bash every single Republican member with it. And they were right.
- More -