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Every day of the impeachment trial, Senator Murphy is writing a bit about his read of the day’s events. He’ll share his thoughts and insights and try to give some behind-the-scenes vignettes. He wants to make sure the trial is as transparent as possible.
Below are Senator Murphy’s takeaways from Senate Democrats’ push yesterday to hold a fair trial.
– Team Murphy
I sit in the front row, so I’m right on top of the impeachment managers. They are crammed into a tight space, and my first thought is that I’m going to be spending a lot of time looking at the back of Rep. Jason Crow’s head for the next two weeks.
White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s opener is deflating. His casualness with the truth reflects his boss (he says, for instance, that the House depositions excluded Republicans). I whisper to Tim Kaine during a break that the president’s strategy may be to just force the House managers to chase their lies.
During another break, a Republican who is tempted to vote for witnesses later in the trial flags me down to warn that too many votes on witnesses tonight might scare off other like-minded Republicans. I hear my colleague out. I want to keep these lines of communication open.
The contrast between the preparedness of the House managers and the president’s team is striking. Schiff and his team carefully build their case with prepared remarks choreographed with video. Cipollone and his lawyers seem to be winging it mostly. Kind of wild to watch.
As it gets late, both sides start to get overly chippy and personal. I’m alarmed at how often the parties are directly addressing each other. Neither the managers nor the president’s lawyers are on trial. Trump is. Good for Chief Justice Roberts for stepping in gently.
It’s so heartbreaking to spend all night enduring Republicans’ stonewalling of a fair trial. We lose every single roll call, even the one to just give the managers more than 120 minutes to provide written responses to motions. McConnell keeps his folks in line on every vote.
We wrap at 2 AM. McConnell could have sent us home at a reasonable hour and reconvened Wednesday, but he’s happy to have as much of this trial happen in the dead of night as possible. Get ready for more of this.
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