January 21, 2020

"No witnesses, no evidence, no time, no cameras," tweeted David Frum after reviewing Mitch McConnell's rules for the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And in a nutshell, that is exactly what they are. A travesty.

Under McConnell's rules, the trial will begin at 1pm Eastern each day, and each side will have 24 hours to present their case -- 12 hours a day for 4 days. Witnesses and evidence will not be considered until both sides have presented their case.

Representatives for Trump will be Doug Collins, Mike Johnson, Jim Jordan, Debbie Lesko, Mark Meadows, John Ratcliffe, Elise Stefanik, and Lee Zeldin, the bottom-feeders of the House. Expect Collins to sound like an auctioneer while Jordan and Meadows scream at everyone, leaving the snark to Stefanik.

Neal Katyal described the behavior of Republicans as a "crime against the American people" during the discussion above with Ari Melber's panel just after the news broke. That seems about right.

"The brief is a really remarkable document, and it basically is President Trump's tweets strung together from the last several months and put into a legal brief," said Katyal. "It's not an actual legal argument."

After observing that the document they filed basically said that Trump "is above impeachment" is like the first punch in a one-two combination, Katyal turned to McConnell's rules as the second punchl

"McConnell's rules now say the opening arguments are going to be over two 12-hour blocks, which he is doing on purpose," he said. "And this is a crime against the American people, because what it means is that these arguments are going to take place at midnight in the dead of night, and there is only one reason why McConnell would do that, because he's trying to hide the arguments from the American people."

Indeed. They are so terrified of the facts and the truth that it's obvious they're burying them both and the U.S. Constitution along with it.

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