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Now that the impeachment articles have been transferred to the U.S. Senate and Senators have been sworn in as jurors, Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial is officially underway.
And while it's adjourned for the long weekend, the White House just announced their legal team, and it's a doozy.
In addition to lead attorneys Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, Trump's legal team will consist of five additional lawyers who are expected to have speaking roles on the Senate floor throughout the trial:
- Robert Ray
- Alan Dershowitz
- Ken Starr
- Jane Raskin
- Pam Bondi
And none other than Monica Lewinsky herself weighed in with a reaction that was relatable AF:
Many were here for it and had Lewinsky's back.
But doesn't that sentiment pretty much define every day?
Evergreen 🌲 tweet
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 17, 2020
And how is that going to. go for Starr?
Fair:
Can we make this happen, please?
Republican Congressman Posts Video of Light Fixture Falling on Hillary Clinton in Christmas Message, It Backfires Spectacularly
Christmas is usually a time when politicians send apolitical Christmas holiday wishes and seasons greetings.
That was not the case for Republican Congressman Rep. Paul Gosar, however, who took the opportunity on Christmas Eve to share an old video of Hillary Clinton almost getting taken out by lighting equipment during a 1992 60 Minutes interview.
His caption:
Remember the reason for the season! #MerryChristmas
Reporter Thinks She Knows Exactly What Inspired Trump to Call Zelensky to Demand an Investigation Into the Bidens, and It Makes a Lot of Sense
Donald Trump's impeachment was set in motion after a whistleblower report came to light complaining about the inappropriate nature of Trump's July 25th call with Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine.
During that call, Trump leveraged the threat of withholding U.S. aid funding to Ukraine in order to get an investigation into alleged corruption of Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
Many had fixated on one aspect of the timing of the call: it came just one day after Robert Mueller testified in front of Congress about his report, a testimony that was widely seen as a dud. Perhaps Trump felt emboldened and newly vindicated by Mueller's testimony.
But now we have a new clue as to what may have inspired the call to Zelensky: a Fox News poll that Trump had been touting that very morning:
What else was in that poll?
Well, for one thing:
NBC News politics correspondent Heidi Przybyla gives us a glimpse into what may have motivated Trump that very day to want to undermine Biden's campaign:
The timing is damning:
People are on board with the theory.
And legally, it could have serious implications.
Hard to argue with math.
Hoisted by his own Twitter petard.
Vladimir Putin Slams Democrats for Impeaching Trump and It Sure Sounds Like He's Spouting White House Talking Points
On Wednesday, December 18, 2019, President Donald J. Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on two articles of impeachment.
Not surprisingly, when Vladimir Putin weighed in on the news on Thursday, he sounded very much like a mouthpiece of the Trump White House.
One of Republicans' favorite talking points about impeachment is that Democrats have been trying to impeach Trump ever since he got in office, and that impeachment is just another way of re-litigating the 2016 election.
They also assert that Trump did nothing wrong, neither in 2016 nor on the call with President Zelensky of Ukraine.
Cue Putin:
"One party that lost the elections, the Democrats, is now trying to find new ways by accusing Trump of collusion with Russia. But then it turns out there was no collusion, this can't be the basis for the impeachment. Now they came up with some pressure on Ukraine.."
Sound familiar?
Watch below:
People were not surprised.
Some wondered who was following whose talking points.
After all:
The puppet master is at it again.
Democratic Congresswoman Shames Donald Trump for Joking About Her Dead Husband at His Michigan Rally
At his impeachment day rally in Michigan on Wednesday, Donald Trump resorted to his usual brand of name-calling and insults.
This time he went on a riff about Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell, who succeeded her husband, John Dingell, after he retired at the end of 2014 as the longest serving member of Congress in U.S. history.
John Dingell died on February 7, 2019 at age 92. Which for Trump meant that he was fair game for mockery, namely, suggesting that perhaps he was in hell right now.
After complaining that Rep. Dingell voted for his impeachment, Trump claimed she requested that her husband lie in state after his death, and that after he "gave him everything," she called him to thank him profusely.
"She calls me up, "it's the nicest thing that's ever happened, thank you so much. John would be so thrilled, he's looking down he would be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir." That's OK, don't worry about it. Maybe he's looking up, I don't know."
Watch it below:
Wednesday night after the rally, Dingell fired back with a tweet explaining to Trump how much his comments hurt her:
"You brought me down in a way you can never imagine and your hurtful words just made my healing much harder."
Dingell's office also released the facts including that John Dingell "didn't lie in the rotunda. Mrs. Dingell didn't request it and when suggested she declined. And that would have been a Congressional decision, not Presidential."
People on both sides of the aisle were outraged by Trump's words, with two Republican Reps from Michigan, Fred Upton and Paul Mitchell, calling on Trump to apologize.
Former Republican Senator Jeff Flake tweeted:
Megan McCain expressed her disgust.
And Justin Amash, former Republican Congressman, tweeted his support for Rep. Dingell:
Others were equally outraged.
Rep. Dingell, I'm heartbroken by Trump's comments. Your husband was an honorable man and patriot; I worked with him on the Hill and it was a privilege. Thank you for your work and for taking the high road with Trump. P.S. I miss Rep. Dingell's clever and funny tweets.
— mare6367 (@mare6367) December 19, 2019
The White House's response? That Trump is a "counter-puncher."
Keeping it classy as always.
After Don Jr. Called George Conway 'a Disgrace' for Criticizing His Father, Conway Fired Back With Blistering Tweets
George Conway, husband of Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway and masterful Twitter critic of the president, made headlines this week by taking his criticism of Trump off Twitter and onto the airwaves, serving as an impeachment hearing commentator for MSNBC.
Donald Trump, Jr. did not take kindly to that, as he made clear on Twitter in a tense back and forth for the ages.
Donald Trump Went After Former Ukraine Ambassador on Twitter as She Testified, and Hillary Clinton Just Called Him Out
Friday morning, during the second day of public impeachment hearings, Former Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch -- whom Donald Trump recalled after a concerted smear campaign by Rudy Giuliani and his associates -- testified in front of the Intelligence Committee.
About an hour into Yovanovitch's testimony, during which she expressed her feeling "threatened" by Donald Trump's comments to the Ukrainian President that she was "going through some things," Trump took to Twitter to try to counter her testimony, saying: