Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

I tuned back in to this and got a bizarre digression from Castor into why the "excited utterance" hearsay exception exists, for reasons entirely unclear to anyone except himself.

Now he's talking about how record players work.

https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1359232019251802119

Castor's impeachment defense opening argument is just incredibly incoherent. We've gone from brief academic discussions of hearsay rules, to asking whether anyone remembers what a record player is, to a long digression about Everett Dirksen and why US Senators are "gallant."

Now he's... telling Senators how great they are? Just like as a general matter, how he believe Senators are important people and do good thing, and then says that he personally knows both of PA's senators.

"The people you represent are proud of their senators" which, uh....

Castro keeps talking up his personal connection to Pat Toomey, including calling him "Pat," which seems like a weird strategy but okay.

"Senators are patriots. They are family men and women."

Five minutes in and still hasn't got to the point?

I think this is the best theory I've heard yet for what Castor is doing, which so far seems to be just about stroking the egos of everyone in the Senate, but in particular Pat Toomey's ego.

https://twitter.com/qjurecic/status/1359234804013821956

And without literally any transition, Castor goes straight from talking about how great the Senate is into just kind of rambling about the Founders for a minute before taking a long pause, mentioning a recent trip to the Capitol, and then going back to praising the Senate.

.... now he's talking about.... the fall of the Roman Republic?

And then he talks about "The Senate of Greece, sitting in Athens," which was not a thing!

And now Castor claims that it's absurd to rely on pre-Revolutionary English law since we left England, which, wow, did this guy go to law school? Because they literally teach you in the first week of law school about how the entire US legal system is built on English common law.

Now Castor is seemingly attacking AOC for asking Nancy Mace to "walk back" some comments, so the formal impeachment defense has apparently devolved into an old man rambling about cancel culture, so, uh.... going great.

Now he's claiming he'll defend Nancy Mace (not by name) if the government tries to force her to walk back some comments?? Which no one is talking about??

Now Castor is trying to claim that "release the whirlwind," was already "taken" so he changed it to "release the floodgates."

Apparently "open the floodgates," the common phrased used literally ever day in courts around the country, wasn't available either?

Aaaaand he just out of nowhere called Eric Holder "articulate" in a random diatribe about how maybe after this Republicans could impeach Eric Holder.

Boy he really is from suburban Philly.

/I kid

Now we're apparently going to learn about the Nebraska judiciary for some reason?

I have no idea what this is in reference to.

Castor seems to be finishing his bizarre digressions and ramblings about politics and "floodgates" and 20 minutes in turns to the actual impeachment, by referencing his own legal arguments vaguely without making clear what they actually are.

We get our first actual citation of the Constitution over 30 minutes in to the impeachment defense.

Great legal defense: "I didn't know how to respond to the 'cast the wide net' argument" so he went and looked it up.

"the people are smart enough, in a light most favorable to them, to pick a new administration."

Boy that aside is... uh.... not really necessary.

He's literally quoted the Constitution a single time since he started talking and even then was only talking about the meaning of insurrection in the 14th Amendment.

https://twitter.com/KatyTurNBC/status/1359241224587268098

... he just admitted that they were originally planning on presenting their case on the presumption that the House Managers would do a bad job, so now that they've done a good job he had to change things up.

I refuse to believe this man ever practiced law because wow.

Castor ends by handing over to his colleague and noting "now that I've taken all of his time" which, again, has this man ever been told the concept of "don't always say the first thing that comes into your head especially when you are on national TV"?

I'm not going to livetweet the arguments of Trump's second lawyer, David Schoen, who has begun by Loudly Enunciating and Being Publicly Angry.

At least he's not winging it!