The first rule of trial law is if the law is against you, argue the facts. It appears the first rule of impeachment is if you don’t have the facts or the law, make something up.
The law doesn’t help Team Trump in this impeachment because the country has been impeaching federal administrative officers after they have left office from the beginning.
The facts are all on film: Trump is on tape saying “Fight! Fight!” and he was not at a football game in a kick line of cheerleaders.
This is tough, but it may not be impossible for Team Trump.
The only winning argument that I can see for the Republicans is the previously untested “historical Zoom call.”
Rudy Giuliani is just the man to quote the Zoom call he had with King George III during his pretrial prep. The king confirmed that because the American Revolution was not an act of “sedition,” we are still British subjects. Therefore, the United States Constitution is unconstitutional.
He can rely on what we already know, which is that Zoom calls are really just séances: “King George? King George are you there? We can’t see you!”
Handled properly this is not a bad argument because:
1) No one has the facts to deny this
2) If there are questions, Giuliani, as an officer of the court, will swear that it’s true
3) Fox News will confirm it
4) The Senate has already made up its mind
Furthermore, Giuliani can forcefully deflect criticism by arguing that it is just those insensitive Democrats again. After all, King George is a senior citizen, and this is new technology! And also, he’s dead.
If Fox News broadcasts this, half the country will believe it!
What will protect America? How do we win back the hearts and minds of our fellow countrymen and women?
I know! I know! A counter Zoom call with Mark Twain!
Mr. Twain, how can we save ourselves from these despots? We can’t defame a dead king to depose a fascist president!
“Our papers have one peculiarity — it is American — their irreverence… They are irreverent toward pretty much everything, but where they laugh one good king to death, they laugh a thousand cruel and infamous shams and superstitions into the grave, and the account is squared. Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense.“
Do you mean don’t take them on at all? Next, they will have the Christian churches preaching it from the pulpit! Remember “In God we trust?”
“The devil’s aversion to holy water is a light matter compared with a despot’s dread of a newspaper that laughs.”
But I have been raised to believe that there will always be heroes that will protect our constitution!
“We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles.”
Mr. Twain may have something here after all.
My recommendation is that the Democrats give the newspapers something to work with and not put up an argument at all. In place of legal posturing that will not persuade the Republicans in the Senate, simply hand out happy faces and little American flags that can be waved with syncopated knee slapping instead of objection or logical argument.
Have we really come to this?
