One is riveted by the arguments of the House managers prosecuting the case as they trace the trajectory of the tweets, TV appearances, rallies and pronouncements by Trump,
One is sickened by accounts not only of the people who were killed during the insurrection, but of the injuries sustained by the police officers who were set upon by the mob: officers with gouged eyes, cracked ribs, smashed spinal discs, brain injuries; officers stabbed with metal stakes, attacked with bats, hit with wrenches. One officer lost three fingers.
But unreal as it feels to be watching the trial of a President of the United States accused of inciting a deadly insurrection against our country, what makes the experience all he more incredible is that this trial isn't about finding Donald Trump innocent or guilty. For that purpose this trial doesn't matter at all because all but a handful of the Republican members of the United States Senate decided before the trial even began that they were going to vote to acquit Trump no matter what the evidence.
On the opening day of the trial Donald Trump's two poorly prepared defense attorneys, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, spouted incoherent nonsense.
All the irrefutably damning evidence meticulously presented by the House managers against Donald Trump, most of it consisting of Trump's own words, didn't matter.
Some of them ducked out during the testimony of the House managers.
Rick Scott read a book.
Marco Rubio shuffled papers.
After the first day of the trial Lindsey Graham called Donald Trump to assure him that he would be acquitted. Said Graham, "I reinforced to the president the case is over. It's just a matter of getting the final verdict now."
No kind of justice, of course. And no kind of trial. Just something dreadful and unreal .
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/02/lindsey-graham-trump-not-guilty
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/11/politics/impeachment-sketches-day-three/index.html