Castor, no doubt knowing he had more than 40 Republican votes regardless of what he said, took the opportunity to say nothing coherent at all. While that underscored the weakness of Trump’s case, it also underscored that no argument would change the ultimate outcome: Whatever the lawyers say, Republicans are largely uninterested in holding Trump to account. So, no argument is precisely what Castor delivered.
“This is nothing less than the political weaponization of the impeachment process,” Schoen snapped, “pure, raw sport, fueled by the misguided idea of party over country.” The impeachment, he then suggested, was itself an attack on democracy, an effort to overturn the votes of the 74 million Americans who had voted for Trump in the 2020 election.
Yet even though they know such bad-faith attacks are coming, Democrats in Congress must continue to make the case against Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection at the Capitol. They may not be able to convince Republicans in Congress, but they can make clear to the American people, and to posterity, that they understand the danger Trump represents to democracy and are willing to do what they can to hold him to account.