Following opening arguments from both sides, the Senate voted to proceed with the second impeachment of Donald Trump. There was criticism and praise for both the prosecution and defense, all coming from unsurprising sources.
Summary
Day One of Impeachment Two is in the books, as three democrats made opening arguments, and four hours of debatewas conducted on the constitutionality of the impeachment.
- The impeachment trial will continue after Senate Republicans failed to garner enough votes to declare the trial unconstitutional.
- Democrat House members serving as the prosecution used video of the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol cut with snippets of President Trump’s speech at his rally to open the proceedings.
- President Trump’s attorneys leaned in on the argument that Trump’s impeachment is a partisan witch hunt.
- Reports have surfaced that former President Trump, who has been banned from Facebook and Twitter and therefore cannot respond in real time in his trademark unfiltered manner, is unhappy with the performance of his legal team so far.
- Lawyers on both sides used historical arguments to fortify their positions, though they were apparently at times dubious, including Congressman Jamie Raskin’s inclusion of impeachment of a British official in the 18th century.
- MSNBC contributor Michael Steele praised Rep Jamie Raskin for “making it personal” by including anecdotes from his family members about their experience on Jan. 6th rather than more arguments based on constitutional principles.
- Vanity Fair’s coverage emphasized the argument that Trump’s attorney inadvertently suggested Trump should be arrested and tried criminally rather than go forward with the impeachment.
- CNN’s home page is nearly entirely dedicated to impeachment, including a link to professional media bias apologist Brian Stelter’s self-admittedly repetitive exercising criticizing news outlets that don’t parrot CNN’s breathless wall-to-wall anti-Trump programming.
- Newsmax’s headline focused on the six GOP senators who joined Democrats on voting to proceed with the impeachment, but the article highlighted some criticism of Team Trump’s performance from members of the Senate and Newsmax contributor Alan Dershowitz.
- Missouri Senator Josh Hawley declared the impeachment trial “a terrible waste of time” given its foregone conclusion, which headlined OANN’s coverage of the first day of impeachment.
- Townhall.com set its sights on Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, the one Republican who changed his mind after a previous vote on the impeachment’s constitutionality, who argued the Democrat House prosecutors were “organized” and made a more compelling argument on the question of constitutionality.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
