https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/12/ted-cruz-asks-impeachment-managers-if-kamala-harris-incited-riots-from-black-lives-matter-protests/
Yes, one of the two strangest moments of the trial. Trump's had no lawyers to back him up that it was reasonable to challenge the result and believe the election was stolen. And Impeachment Managers were unfamiliar with this VERY famous statement and behavior of sitting Vice President Kamala Harris. How could they not know; it was played multiple time IN the trial? Why didn't one of the impeachment managers who was familiar take the question. In other words, he lied and Cruz was right. Keep the Senate in session and try Kamala while you are are here, or do you want to wait 23 months and do it when Republicans take the House and impeach here then? If they do, the Senate must drop everything and hold a 4 day trial with the partisan outcome known in advance, like this was.
What a strange proceeding and what a painful waste of time for all involved. Trump got stained especially by the slightly increasing number of Republicans turning against him. Majority against him in both chambers is not a win, but he did win acquittal and is free to run again. Maybe it was enough to make him not want to. More likely the opposite.
The charge of incitement is a crime, high crime, but the proceeding had no legal standards. Hearsay? Admissible. Falsehoods? Admissible. Innuendo? Admissible. Level of proof required for conviction? Undefined. Chopped up, overlaid montages of video: the new standard. Repetition: ad nauseum. Judge presiding? None. Jury sequester? No. Objections allowed? None. Presumption of innocence? No.
With friends like Mitch McConnell, who needs enemies. He voted to acquit after saying more persuasively than the impeachment managers Trump was guilty.
Prosecution made the summer riots look like they were nothing and this was everything, yet we had 1600 buildings destroyed in one city alone, including the police headquarters and a federal building. That was nothing but this was everything? Absurd.
The whole point of the prosecution was how bad the riot was, not Trump's role in it. The worst direct quote they had was him saying "fight like hell". Then the defense played 1000 times people in the room had said the same thing. The real incitement, they argued, was to challenge the result at all. Then the defense played actual House Mangers challenging the previous election, and the previous losing candidate saying the previous election was stolen. In fact, Democrats challenged all recent Republican won elections, without consequence. Trump made a more persuasive challenge than previous challenges because of all the evidence he had on his side.
If this was incitement, how come 100% of those at Trump's speech did nothing violent? What is the proof that those at the front end of the violence were even Trump supporters, a point was made a thousand times. And if they were, that makes Trump no more liable than the Bernie Sanders was for the shooting of the Republican leadership. No charge there.
For me, it was inciteful that media and lying politicians were calling legitimate questions false and baseless when they were neither. They said it was fully litigated in the courts, but the courts had refused that. It was inciteful that the US Supreme Court declared the majority of states do not have standing. What?? It was inciteful to me that Governors and state officials changed rules made by the legislatures, when the constitution specifically gives that responsibility to the legislature. It is inciteful that they leave the border open when in charge and then let those people vote. Felons too. Yet I did not insurrect.
Last time all of Washington looked away through the unpeachment charade, the coronavirus came in. What did we miss this time?
The proceeding wasn't constitutional. Trump didn't incite. There were no standards of evidence. There were no witnesses. There was no one to remove if they did convict. This was a political farce. This was Democrats and some Republicans telling 74 million people who they can't vote for next time, and more importantly sending a message that you don't challenge the integrity of the Democratic vote machine no matter how corrupt it gets.
