I’m not going to write about every day’s developments in President Trump’s impeachment trial, but I can’t resist writing about the first day, which went so long it bled from Tuesday into today.
And who was the star of the first day? Well, it was the same person who was the congressional star of the House Intelligence Committee hearings on Trump’s impeachment — U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff.
As you probably know by now, the Senate on Tuesday — and early today — debated and rejected one proposed amendment after another put forward by the House prosecution managers, led by Schiff. On each amendment, the vote was the same: 53 to 47, with the 53 Republicans voting “no” and the 47 Democrats voting “yes.”
As repetitive as the formula was, I kept watching the proceedings past midnight. The Democratic case managers’ oratorical onslaught kept me glued. (Some of you must be wondering if I’m pretty easily entertained.)
Pat Cipollone
The highlight for me came just before and after midnight (1 a.m. Washington time) after White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said this while arguing against a Democratic amendment to subpoena former National Security Adviser John Bolton to testify…
“President Trump is a man of his word. He made promises to the American people. And he delivered over and over and over again.”
When the words “President Trump is a man of his word” left his mouth, I laughed out loud.
After recovering, I thought that would be the end of it — an incredibly stupid statement that would soon be forgotten.
I should have known better though; I should have known Schiff would not, could not, resist that juicy piece of red meat.
In rebuttal, Schiff made a few unremarkable comments before turning to Cipollone’s jaw-dropping statement.
Here’s what Schiff said…
Finally, Mr. Cipollone says President Trump is a man of his word. Well, it’s too late in the evening for me to go into that one, except to say this: President Trump gave his word he would drain the swamp…And what have we seen? We’ve seen is personal lawyer (Michael Cohen) go to jail; his campaign chairman (Paul Manafort) go to jail; his deputy campaign chairman (Rick Gates) convicted of a different crime; his associate’s (Rudolph Giuliani’s) associate, Lev Parnas, under indictment.
The list goes on and on. That’s, I guess, how you drain the swamp: You have all your people go to jail.
I don’t think that’s really what was meant by that expression. But for purposes of why we’re here today, how does someone who promises to drain the swamp coerce an ally of ours into doing a political investigation? That is the swamp. That’s not draining the swamp, that’s exporting the swamp.
**
Despite losing every vote, it was a great day for the Democrats and another big step toward wresting the White House from Trump. As Jonathan Alter, a columnist for The Daily Beast, said on MSNBC, the Democratic managers outgunned the Republican managers all day. Regarding Schiff in particular, Alter said: “I think it will go down as one of the great performances…He just shreds the other side very time he gets up.”
Thanks, Adam. And thank you, Pat Cipollone, for being such a convenient and willing straight man.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Adam Schiff represents the absolute best of Washington. We need more like him in Congress.
For weeks now, I have thought Schiff was brilliant, and astonishingly brilliant on his feet. I still think so. But the majority have so much mendacity, have made so many contradictory declarations, prostrate themselves in such obvious boot-licking, that Schiff’s brilliance surely appears even more dazzling in contrast to the darkness destroying democracy.
I think you need to find a better source for news than MSNBC. Since this farce started, Trump is polling higher than before, his speaking events are like arena rocks shows and an upcoming one in New Jersey has had over 100,000 ticket requests. In the meantime in Virginia over 20,000 people of all races creeds and colors armed to the teeth came together to peacefully protest the totalitarian machinations of the tone deaf, Democrat dominated, Virginia legislature. This is the perfect example of Stalin’s theory of justice, “Find me the man and I’ll find you the crime” and people are getting sick of it.
I’m still such a slave to objectivity that I’m careful to split my viewing time right down the middle, between MSNBC and Fox. However, my Fox time coincides with nap time, and I do turn the sound down just a bit.
Now that’s funny.
Why even bother when you have me as a resource?
I don’t watch any 24-hour news channels. I get my news from PBS and NPR.
The business model for objective journalism has long since left the building. Any journalist who cites Fox, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBS, ABC, NYT, Wall Street, Journal, and yes, even my beloved Associated Press, as unbiased news sources shows a lack of understanding on exactly how these corporate “news” organizations stay in business by selling advertising to their profile demographic. In the old days, they called these gullible citizens rubes.