Thread by @LindseyGrahamSC

There is no doubt that January 6 was one of the saddest days in American history. It will be part of President Trump’s term in office.

This was an impeachment effort driven by passion and hatred against President Trump.

In their drive to convict former President Trump, the House Managers totally ignored bedrock legal standards.

No hearings in the House of Representatives.

No witnesses.

No testimony.

And the outrageous claim the First Amendment does not apply to political speech.

Due process, at even the most basic level could have avoided this debacle.

Instead, the case presented to the Senate by the House Managers was based on hearsay after hearsay combined with media reports.

The charge against former President Trump for inciting violence was contrary to the evidence.

And using the standard of incitement the House Managers proposed, many politicians could find themselves on the wrong side of impeachments in the future.

It was never the goal of the House to find out what happened on January 6 and then assign blame.

They were assigning complete and total blame to President Trump regardless.

For the good of the country I hope this will be the last Senate impeachment where a President is impeached without a lawyer, without witnesses, and a trial record is built on hearsay upon hearsay.

I fear that if this model is followed in the future – impeachment to disqualify one from holding office based on partisan hatred – will become the norm.

I hope I will be proven wrong, but it seems that impeachment based on partisan differences seems to be becoming the norm, not the exception.