Now You Know

Impeach, Impeach, Impeach:  With the trial rules agreed to, the Democrats’ House Impeachment team started presenting their case yesterday.  To a certain extent their presentations were redundant, especially to those who have been following the Ukraine fiasco from the start.  The repetitiveness is intentional, the  team has two audiences, the Senate and the public.  With regard to the members of the Senate, there actually may be some Republican Senators who have studiously avoided getting up to date on all of Trump’s criminal activity and the Democratic presentation team’s hope is that, forced to sit still and limited to drinking only water and milk, they may actually pay attention, learning that Trump really is too dangerous to leave in place, a pipe dream but one that the presenters have to believe is real.  

As to the public, the Democrats know that few, if any, people are watching the hearing in its entirety or are totally up to date on all the details so they are doing their best to get the whole story to them during whatever time period they tune in.  And notably, in their own way, all of the members of the Democratic team are doing a great job detailing things like the Trump/Giuliani orchestrated character assassination of former Ambassador Yovanovitch, the quid pro quo hold-up of the aid to Ukraine which the non- partisan Government Accounting Office recently ruled really was illegal, the futile attempts to get Ukraine President Zelensky to publicly announce an investigation of the Bidens and all the obstructive refusals to release documents or allow testimony. In particular Adam Schiff is a master.  If this was a real trial and not a political exercise it would be time for Trump to hire one or more of those specialists who help prepare people to survive their prison sentences.  Sadly, despite his criminality and habit of making statements against interest Trump won’t need one.  As to those statements, yesterday Trump commented on Tuesday’s presentations by saying  “We’re doing very well.  I got to watch enough I thought our team did a very good job.  But honestly we have all the material.  They don’t have the material,” an admission that not only has he been obstructing the investigation but that he’s proud of it.  Yesterday Val Demings, the former sheriff who is now one of the members of the House impeachment team, noted Trump’s obstruction admission during her presentation, saying he “not only confessed to it, he bragged about it,” with Adam Schiff adding “nothing could be more dangerous to a democracy than a commander in chief who believed that he could operate with impunity,” and to be clear, Trump believes that he can which goes far towards  explaining why he so often does.  The Democrats are due to finish their arguments today and though they really don’t need all the time they are entitled to they probably will do their best to fill their timeslot because their intention is to keep the trial going through the Super Bowl and past the State of the Union address, a possibility only if the Senate ultimately votes to allow witnesses.  If we’re really lucky, NY’s Hakeem Jeffries, a member of the Democrat’s impeachment team, will get at least one more opportunity to quote departed rap star Notorious B.I.G as he did on Tuesday “and if you don’t know, now you know.”

In other impeachment related news, though the Trump administration continues to bar the release of any of the documents that the Democrats have requested, more information keeps showing up through the backdoor, from Freedom of Information Act requests.  Additionally, at the end of yesterday’s session Chief Justice Roberts ruled that senators  should be given access to a one-page classified document that contains supplemental testimony from Jennifer Williams, a national security aide to VP Pence. Schiff had been pressing Pence to declassify Williams’ supplement ever since it was delivered, arguing that nothing in it is at all top secret.  Unfortunately, while the Senators will get to see it, we won’t, or won’t until someone leaks its contents.  As to witnesses, yesterday’s big story was all about whether or not the Democrats would agree to calling Hunter Biden in exchange for the Republicans permitting John Bolton’s testimony.  That possible swap got lots of attention, in part because Texas charmer Ted Cruz is pushing for Hunter to testify, still it remains unlikely that the younger Biden, or the older Biden, will be called to appear because Mitch McConnell and a number of other Republicans don’t want to turn the trial into a spectacle. They just want to squash the possibility of any witnesses even though the number of Americans who want to hear from John Bolton and the other real fact witnesses is up to 71%.  And of course Lindsey Graham who is himself a spectacle continues to rant against the trial and express his adoration for all things Trump.    

Et Cetera:  Trump isn’t just saying stupid things about the impeachment hearing, he’s now also weighed in on head injuries.  Asked about the soldiers who were hurt during the Iranian attack on the US bases in Iraq, the attack that he previously claimed was no bigly deal because no Americans were hurt,  he said that their injuries didn’t count because he doesn’t consider “brain injuries to be as serious as physical combat wounds” because what’s a headache between friends and anyway it’s not like any of those soldiers are suffering from bone spurs.  Right?  Also, in an effort to further solidify his evangelical base Trump now plans to address the anti-abortion march for life, something that presidents have not done before.  Oh the irony, the guy who brags about grabbing crotches, and who has admitted to unprotected sex with porn stars and bunnies speaking to the anti-abortion crowd.  And to cap off the day, Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaiian Congresswoman who is still running for president, is taking a page from the litigious Devin Nunes “I’m suing a cow” playbook.  She’s now suing or thinking about suing, she won’t say specifically, Hillary Clinton for calling her a Russian asset, a bit of a stretch since Clinton didn’t really say that Gabbard was a knowing asset just that she’s a “favorite of the Russians, they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her.”  Anyway, Gabbard has figured out that suing Clinton or threatening to do so is a good way to garner press for a dying campaign and sadly she’s right.