None of these Republican excuses work

[Zorro]

Opinion by Jennifer Rubin

After a day of horrifying, searing evidence from the House managers, Republican senators are increasingly desperate to figure out how to avoid rubber-stamping the ex-president’s incitement to riot, which injured scores, resulted in five deaths, defiled the Capitol and traumatized staff and lawmakers. (Hint: Vote guilty.) Their excuses are flimsy, even laughable.

“Not constitutional.” Sorry, the Senate voted otherwise on Tuesday after a devastating presentation of law, precedent and common sense showed that they most certainly can impeach an official while in office and convict afterward. Reportedly even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) admits the Senate could exercise jurisdiction. (He’d rather not, however.) It would be absurd for the Senate to run home in the final weeks of a president’s time in office so he can escape his impeachment trial. (Well, that is essentially what they did, right?)

“First Amendment.” Nope. A president has every right to, say, march in a neo-Nazi parade and invite a foreign country to invade. But such conduct is still impeachable. It is not a question of his right to say what he wants, but whether he committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” (in this case, incitement to sedition). Moreover, as dozens of constitutional scholars have explained, incitement to riot is not protected speech.

“No evidence he incited the mob.” That one went out the window on Wednesday, when House managers masterfully took the Senate through weeks of the ex-president’s Big Lie, his “stop the steal” campaign and his call to “fight.” He sent supporters a “save the date” for protests in the capital, whipped them into a frenzy for weeks and timed his harangue just as the Congress was beginning to count the electoral college votes. They even played a video of a rioter reading aloud the disgraced president’s tweet vilifying Vice President Mike Pence as the crowd amassed outside the Capitol. The managers presented a mound of evidence showing the insurrectionists believed they were following the then-president’s orders.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/republicans-are-out-excuses/

[pandr32]

1. The excuses don't have to make sense

They just give some cover--not even plausible cover. It seems as though just by uttering some party line approved nonsense they are off the hook.
We need to hound them and tar them with the fact they have failed to do their sworn duty.

[Chainfire]

2. There is no where for them to hide from their vote.

The crime is self evident, the case was presented to remove any doubt.

It doesn't matter, Republicans will never turn on their spiritual leader regardless of the crime. It is what the Republican part has become, and there is no will to take a different path. Sooner or later, they will pay the price.

[dhill926]

3. this lays it right the hell out there...

good info for countering assholes in arguments...