On day four of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial it was the turn of the defence to make its case.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s legal team asserted that the entire impeachment trial was unconstitutional and a violation of the former president’s due process rights.
They lost that argument, so now they had to set about defending the former president on the merits of the case.
All in all, it took Trump’s lawyers just over three hours to present their arguments – a far cry from the 13 hours the impeachment managers took to lay out their prosecution. For the defence, less could be more, as it already seems clear that enough Republicans will stick by the former president to assure a not guilty verdict.
The Democrats did it, too
During their defence of the president, Trump’s lawyers tried to turn the words of Democrats against them.
They played clip after clip of members of the House of Representatives, including lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin, contesting the results of previous presidential elections. If Democrats can challenge the election results, Trump’s lawyers said, why can’t Trump?
In another video montage, the lawyers featured Democrats praising and encouraging the Black Lives Matters demonstrations of 2020, suggesting – as the clips flipped to acts of violence during those protests – that Democrats used rhetoric as bad or worse than Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden’s campaign slogan, Michael Van der Bleen noted, was “a battle for the soul of America”.
He added that he was not suggesting that Democrats should face punishment. Rather, heated rhetoric has long been a part of US politics.
It might be time to cool down the vitriol, van der Bleen said, but Trump’s speech certainly wasn’t grounds for impeachment and conviction.
