Remember from your crime TV shows, that during the sentencing hearing after a jury conviction, a major consideration is given to the accused if they show remorse.
“I feel terrible about what happened. I’m just plain ashamed. I hate myself for what I did. That’s so not me.”
What we got from Trump was the diametrical opposite:
“A total acquittal by the evil, corrupt House managers. They hurt me so bad. My poor immensely wealthy family was so terribly hurt by this just plain vicious, uncalled for attack upon me and mine. You evil people knocked six whole points off my golf score. Six points. Is that stress? Tell me that’s not stress. Look how I’ve suffered. Just suffered. Bad. So bad. Stress! I so hate stress!”
(Sound familiar? Next time you hear one of these rants, check to see if he’s reading his teleprompter. Like, what a total loser. He can’t even rant off the cuff.)
Trump’s character played a role in the impeachment, as it should, but perhaps not enough of a role given the enormity of his character. The Republicans called it a wash. Do they still feel that way? Would they invite Trump over to Sunday dinner with grandma and the grandkids? (Better have a pocketful of lemon drops to calm their fears of all the nasty things they hear before you have a chance to plug their ears up with cotton.)
Professor Dershowitz made a big deal out of “state of mind.” If you’re 100% convinced that what you do is for the good of the country, no matter what you do is not impeachable. Okay, let’s give him that argument. Actions speak louder than words – what do Trump’s actions during and after the impeachment speak to his state of mind? His words? The man is in a pathological state of uncontrollable rage. He’s a sociopath. Of course he’s 100% convinced that it was a “perfect phone call” and that whatever he does is legal, without limit.
Did you entertain, for just one microsecond, that maybe the debacle of the Iowa Caucuses (because a new app screwed up) was an act of sabotage by Trump, or Trump’s corporate allies – or the Russians?
I’m an engineer. I’ve rolled out my fair share of apps: you test it exhaustively, then you give it to friends to test, then you run exhaustive tests in actual practice. You set up classes to train the users, test the app some more, and on and on and on. Einstein said that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” Well, software is 1% code and 99% testing. You honestly think they screwed up that bad without a little help?
If you had even the slightest doubt about Trump’s involvement in the Iowa vote-result mess, I’m with you. It was the perfect trifecta. You get to (1) take a dig at the Democrats who just screwed your perfect presidency, (2) discombobulate their stupid primary process (while Trump landed in Air Force One in the middle of the chaos to hold an enormous Nuremberg Rally), and (3) undermine democracy itself, making a total fool out of the most representative democratic process ever invented by man – to the point where the media now want to eliminate the stupid, arcane caucus system. Bingo! Bit win for Team Trump.
You honestly think Trump has the self-discipline to not jump into a perfect opportunity like that, to test – confirm! – his new plebiscite over power in Washington? “Hail Caesar!”
One of the major counts against President Nixon was the widespread coverup after the bungled Watergate break-in. What do you call Trump’s blanket refusal to honor all House investigations, forcing four million executive department employees to shut the hell up – or face the wrath of the Almighty? Or the muzzling of the Republicans in the Senate during the trial, via his jury foreman Mitch McConnell? All smoothed over by Fox News in live, prime-time propaganda?
“Cover-up.” We all know the meaning of that word. We know how it’s done and the consequences. In retrospect, it’s pretty clear that we’re looking at a major league cover-up here – not just by Trump and his Executive Branch but maybe even by the Republican Senate Caucus and the Republican National Committee.
“No, wait. I have a Justice Department Opinion here that vindicates everything. I had a DOJ opinion before I took any action whatsoever. What I did was legal. Here’s the proof positive.” Excuse me, but after three years of ruthless purges at every level in the Executive Branch – you honestly expect us to consider any opinion to come out of the government as other than totally, utterly biased?
“But everybody is presumed innocent before proven guilty.” Innocent people don’t taunt the system. They don’t say, “I can shoot somebody on 5th Avenue and nobody would do squat.” They don’t subvert the judiciary and twist the entire body of law to cover up what amounts to just a really stupid mistake.
Just think back on all that Trump has done, all over Washington, all over the nation – railroading the entire Republican Party, both Houses of Congress, and the entire judiciary – for what?
Personally, I think the Ukraine “drug trade” is just the tiny tip of the iceberg. Otherwise, why block all witnesses, all documents, all departments of the entire federal government from participating?
Trump did something really bad, and I want to know what it was.