Unsurprising reports surfaced late Tuesday that former President Donald Trump was “furious” and “beyond angry” with the performance his impeachment lawyers put on earlier in the day. According to Fox News, CNN, and other outlets, Trump was seething in Palm Beach as he watched defense lawyer Bruce Castor give his weak rebuttal to the Democrats’ opening arguments.
Reports say that Trump was pushed nearly to “screaming” by Castor’s rambling, ineffective opening statement, which succeeded in actually losing one of the Republicans – Sen. Bill Cassidy – who had previously voted to declare the impeachment trial unconstitutional.
While Trump’s lawyers could go up in front of the Senate and perform a literal juggling act and still probably secure an acquittal, Castor’s performance was nonetheless lamentable. It was panned by social media and even by many of Trump’s supporters in the Senate. Sen. Ted Cruz admitted later in the day that Castor did not put on the most “effective” performance he’d ever seen.
As for Cassidy, he said that anyone who watched Trump’s lawyers “saw they were unfocused, they attempted to avoid the issue. And they talked about everything but the issue at hand.”
Well, he’s not wrong about that. We were particularly unamused when Castor gave a nod to the House impeachment managers, acknowledging that he would have to change tactics a bit because their presentation was so “well done.” And we’re sure that Trump was not happy when Castor said: “The American people just spoke and they just changed administrations,” suggesting that the public was “smart” enough to make that choice. We know what he was getting at, but still!
Castor’s remarks were enough to give the AP an embarrassing headline: “Trump Never Conceded He Lost, But His Impeachment Lawyer did.”
Facing criticism, Castor defended his opening argument by saying, “You put 100 people in the same room, you’re going to get 100 different opinions. We only lost one…so I believe we had a good day.”
Guess that’s one way to look at it.
The president’s lawyers would, of course, have to blunder this trial beyond belief to allow Democrats to secure a conviction; we’d go as far as to say that’s off the table entirely. That’s not because Trump hired effective counsel, it’s because the case is ludicrous and unconstitutional on its face. Impeachment is the remedy prescribed by the Constitution to remove a sitting official, which Trump is not. If there are charges to be brought against a former president, they should be handled by the Department of Justice, not the Senate. We imagine Merrick Garland is smart enough not to open THAT can of worms, but that doesn’t make this week’s proceedings any more justifiable.
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