If Trump's team doesn't call those close to Trump who could help exonerate him - Pence, Meadows, McCarthy, Tuberville, Don Jr, Stephen Miller, Stone, Flynn - it means that they can't actually exonerate him.
Again, why isn't the defense calling Rudy, Pence, Meadows, McCarthy, Stephen Miller, Don Jr?
Any one who could say definitively that the President is innocent, had no desire to disrupt the vote, incite the crowd, that in fact he just wanted to.....do, what exactly?
Extending the trial by even a few days (Senate is in recess next week, can do depositions then) is a big problem not just for Trump but for his lawyers who already are in professional jeopardy for the incredible and repeated lies they told on Friday:
Short thread recapping some key takeaways from today.
Trump's lawyers lied on the Senate floor about whether the President knew Pence was in danger. It's just implausible he wasn't informed as soon as Pence was moved. This was a shocking moment (1/x).
Not only did the Secret Service undoubtedly inform the White House in real time that the VP was in trouble, and the Capitol was falling, but Senator Tuberville confirmed that he told the President the VP had been moved.
After GOP let Trump go last Jan we saw a year of epic malevolence - COVID disaster, economy crashes, assault on election/USPS/Census, domestic crackdown, attack on Congress.
What happens if GOP lets him go again?
My bet - Trump assumes clear leadership of violent insurgency.
Rather than contrition, apologies from those who worked with Trump to push the Big Lie and a domestic insurgency, if anything we are seeing the seditionists dig in, and grow in case some cases more radical, extreme.
On Tue 2/2 hosted a really compelling discussion about Trump, authoritarianism, the current moment with @ruthbenghiat. Watch if you can - always learn so much from her.
Consider also buying her book "Strongmen" - it is timely, important.
Here’s what the good people of Georgia are waking up to this morning - local extremist groups, some aligned w MTG, talking on the record about a sustained insurgency against the US.
Read what MTG wrote YESTERDAY, below. She repeats the new MAGA blood libel - that Democrats are an existential threat to the nation, which is why she/other patriots are justified in using violence to stop them. (2/x).
Trump wove all these narratives together, he brought everyone together around the idea Dems/radical left existential threat, he/patriots were going to Save America by keeping them/removing them from power.
1/So I learned this weekend that my 80 year old aunt, who is healthy but has a bad leg so she can't wait on line for hours or walk long distances, still hasn't been able to get vaccinated in her country in NY State north of NYC. No slots.
2/I looked at our population tables, and even though the Trump Administration said we would have 40m people vaccinated by the end of December, we still have not vaccinated the 22m or so over 75. My aunt is 80 - so even higher risk.
3/The original Trump sin was not building a national testing and tracing regime for the eventually vaccination rollout to be built on top of. We could have learned from building that initial system, and been ready for the incredibly tough task of rapidly vaccinating everyone.