Earlier today Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared on CNBC for an extensive interview from the Davos, Switzerland, World Economic Forum.
Good grief. What is so hard to understand about the statement: “economic security is national security”?
There will be 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers (over 3 days); 24 hours of presentation by Defense team (over 3 days); 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments, equally divided; and then a Senate debate/vote on further motions to include witnesses. If there are going to be witnesses, they will first be deposed prior to testimony. No witness testimony will be permitted without first being deposed.
The Senate Trial continues today with the third day opening session at 1:00pm EST. Today is the second 8 hr day of arguments by House Impeachment Managers.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox10 News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link
Many people are becoming aware the Senate impeachment trial is an exercise in politics, nothing more. The votes are already decided; the trial is simply a pantomime.
To highlight the point, Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, simply walked out during the trial when Adam Schiff was testifying; said “goodnight” and just went home.
Washington Post congressional reporter Paul Kane noted:
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As 21 different state attorneys general noted earlier today, there are several reasons why the impeachment effort is unconstitutional. These are not process arguments; they are factual arguments central to the constitutional framework of our government.
The failure of a full House vote to authorize the House Judiciary Committee to pursue evidence -via enforceable subpoenas- was a defect by design of Nancy Pelosi’s decision to initiate an impeachment inquiry by her decree, not an authorizing vote. White House lawyer Patrick Philbin explains the legal issue; this could be the lead argument in the defense case when it starts. [Video prompted to 03:20]
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CTH noted this structural issue last August, and the issue remained throughout the heavily manipulated proceedings. None of the House requests for testimony or documents held any enforcement authority because the House did not follow the constitutional process.
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President Trump’s co-lead counsel, Jay Sekulow, discusses his perspective on the opening arguments for the House impeachment case. As Sekulow notes, so far the House appears to be attempting to leverage impeachment for a difference in foreign policy outlooks:
Unfortunately, one of the necessities of this ridiculous impeachment effort is to have fact-based advocates who can debunk impeachment lies before the narrative engineers (media) has a cycle to run with them. That’s one of the reasons why Lee Zeldin, Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe and Mark Meadows are so important.
In this quick media briefing, the truth tellers quickly debunk the narrative (story) being spun within the upper chamber by Adam Schiff’s lying House Managers. John Ratcliffe hones-in on the timeline and rattles-off the dates as an experienced litigator. WATCH:
It is not a process argument, but rather a matter of constitutional preservation.
Twenty-one State Attorneys’ General submit a brief to the Senate (full pdf below) in support of complete rejection for the House articles of impeachment.
…”If not expressly repudiated by the Senate, the theories animating both Articles will set a precedent that is entirely contrary to the Framers’ design and ruinous to the most important governmental structure protections contained in our Constitution: the separation of powers”…
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson along with twenty additional State AG’s, submit a 14-page briefing (download here) to the United States Senate warning of the danger of not rejecting a purely partisan political impeachment effort. The Attorneys’ General note the current impeachment proceedings are “fundamentally flawed as a matter of constitutional law.” Their concerns are echo points starting to be realized by Senators.
During a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, South Carolina AG Alan Wilson said the group was urging the Senate to “reject these articles” as a matter of constitutional law. WATCH:
To assist in page-load-time we’re breaking up the Senate Impeachment discussion threads.
There will be 24 hours of presentation by House Impeachment Managers (over 3 days); 24 hours of presentation by Defense team (over 3 days); 16 hours of Senate questioning; 4 hours of closing arguments, equally divided; and then a Senate debate/vote on further motions to include witnesses. If there are going to be witnesses, they will first be deposed prior to testimony. No witness testimony will be permitted without first being deposed.
The Senate Trial continues today with the second session at 3:50pm EST, continuing with with opening arguments by House Impeachment Managers.
PBS Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – Fox Business – CSPAN Link
At the conclusion of two days of meetings and discussions, President Trump holds a press conference prior to departing the World Economic Forum. Surprisingly President Trump invited Roberto Azevedo, Director General of the World Trade Organization, to give remarks. [Video and Transcript]
Earlier today, while attending Davos, President Trump sat down for a lengthy interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo. The primary topic was trade and economics with additional insight around the impeachment fiasco and some current events.
Unfortunately Ms. Bartiromo did not ask if President Trump remembered there were documents he was going to declassify.