Thread by @gtconway3d

“[T]he fact that senators swear an oath to ‘bear true faith’ to the Constitution, and the fact that the Constitution requires the Senate to ‘try all Impeachments,’ should require them to hold a real trial with live witnesses.”
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“But if that isn’t enough to persuade them, Republican senators should consider at least two significant practicalities.”
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“The first is that the Ukraine investigation is only three months old. ... A remarkably strong case was assembled in an unusually short time, even in the face of extraordinary obstructionism from the administration ....”
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“What that tells us is that plenty more evidence remains to be unearthed. We know already of the witnesses whom [Senator] Schumer ... proposes should testify, but [were] blocked by Trump[,] [which include] Mulvaney [and] Bolton ....”
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“One way or another, the gist of that evidence will seep out, as truth inevitably does. ... Giuliani ... will continue to make admissions, and, if he were to be criminally prosecuted, evidence would come out in his prosecution.”
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“Others — most notably Bolton — will write books. There will be more leaks to intrepid journalists. Perhaps more whistleblowers will step forward.”
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“[T]he House can still investigate, [as it has] a continuing obligation of oversight, [and] there is no double-jeopardy prohibition on impeachment: If more damning evidence surfaces, there is no constitutional reason Trump couldn’t be impeached again.”
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“So ... even if Trump is acquitted in a short-circuited trial, that won’t prevent the evidence from [coming out]. ... Republican senators ... risk ... being refuted and shamed on the pages of history by the very evidence they sought to suppress.”
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“But that’s not the only practical reason they shouldn’t cut the trial short. A second reason — perhaps the ultimate reason — is President Trump.”
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“For the extraordinary evidence of the Ukraine scandal isn’t a one-off. Putting his interests above the nation’s is what Trump instinctively does.”
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“Trump’s written tirade to Pelosi confirms the point: It shows that, even as he is being impeached, he still has no idea why — and thus no idea what his presidential duties require. He hasn’t learned his lesson, and never will.”
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“And that is the ultimate point Republican senators who care about their legacies should consider: They run the risk of being refuted and shamed on the pages of history not just by the evidence — but by Trump himself.”
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