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What did POTUS know and when did he know it?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The ghost of a great Republican U.S. senator has been revived in the closing hours of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.

Howard Baker of Tennessee once asked witnesses appearing before the Senate Watergate Committee: What did President Nixon know and when did he know it? What did the president know about the break-in at the Democratic Party offices, the coverup and all that followed that infamous scandal of 1973-74? We found out. Nixon resigned. The rest is history.

Now comes the latest iteration of that query. What did Donald Trump know about the danger facing Vice President Mike Pence during the Jan. 6 riot at Capitol Hill and when did he know it? Trump’s lawyers say he didn’t know anything. Two GOP lawmakers — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Tommy Tuberville — say something quite different. They told Trump that Pence was in trouble and that the mob was looking for the VP as he sought to do his constitutional duty of certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Trump didn’t respond. He didn’t express concern about Pence’s well-being. He did nothing to quell the violence.

Will any of this change minds? Hardly. Still, I am intrigued by the channeling of a long-departed political icon — Sen. Baker — into this current bit of drama.

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Let’s move on … but do not forget!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Our latest national nightmare is winding its way to a conclusion.

I’ll toss a single bouquet at Donald Trump’s legal team. It took next to no time to finish its job in defending their client in the U.S. Senate trial against charges that he incited an insurrection against the U.S. government.

I don’t believe Trump’s team made the case. But that’s just me. He did what the House of Representatives alleged he did in its impeachment article. The remaining task will be for the Senate to cast its vote.

I do not expect a conviction. Trump will walk away. The Constitution sets a high bar for conviction, two-thirds of the senators have to agree; they won’t get there.

What now? Well, it is time to move on. It is not time to forget. Nor is it time to shove aside what happened on the Sixth of January. What happened was an egregious attack on our system of government. It was an attack on our democratic process.

The terrorists who stormed Capitol Hill intended to stop Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty of certifying the results of an election that Donald Trump lost. He still hasn’t accepted his defeat, that Joe Biden is now president.

The Senate very soon can get busy with other pressing matters. COVID relief needs approval. There needs to be attention paid to economic revival. President Biden can now step out of the shadows cast by the impeachment trial and insert his own efforts at fixing what ails the nation.

I am fine with that. I only wish we could anticipate a more just outcome from the Senate trial. We won’t get it.

Instead, we are going to witness a majority of Republican senators continue to lick the boots of a cult figure. There might be a few crossovers, just not enough of them.

If I was King of the World, I would suggest that the Republican Party needs to assess whether it believes that “character matters,” and that it hues to the tenets of inclusion that made it a great political party. The Party of Trump represents none of it.

But, hey, that’s politics, right?

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Why acquit this potential foe?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If there are any major villains among the cast of U.S. Senate Republicans willing to acquit Donald John Trump on charges that he incited that hideous riot on Jan. 6, they likely are Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Think about this little bit of political dynamism, if you will.

Both of these men seem to care little about the Senate. They both want to be president of the United States. Cruz ran for the big office in 2016, only to lose to the guy he called a “sniveling coward,” a “narcissist the likes of which we haven’t seen,” a “pathological liar” and an “amoral” individual. Hawley also appears to have his eyes on the prize beyond the Senate.

So, here’s the quandary they face. How do they vote to acquit someone and, therefore, enable him to possibly enter the 2024 presidential race having been freed of the charges leveled against him by the House impeachment? Trump might be seen in some circles as a major obstacle to anyone among the GOP ranks of pretenders seeking to ascend to the presidency.

Why not, then, vote to convict and lobby your other colleagues to do the same? Keep the Trump monster caged up by voting to ban him from ever seeking federal public office again.

Oh, wait! I almost forgot something. Doing all of that would anger the Trumpkin Corps of voters who remain loyal to the former Insurrectionist in Chief.

Whatever. I am one American voter/patriot who believes Donald Trump’s future as a political candidate is, shall we say … toast! No matter what the Senate decides at the end of this trial.

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Trump reveals his ‘love’

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald John Trump told the rioters/terrorists/mobsters/hooligans/thugs who stormed Capitol Hill on the Sixth of January that he “loved” them.

The lame-duck president of the United States has not yet expressed any public “love” for the Capitol Police officers who fought the rioters. He hasn’t expressed any “love” for the individuals who were injured. Trump hasn’t offered a single word of condolence or compassion for those who died in the melee. Donald Trump has yet to say a single word out loud and in public about the threat of assassination that confronted then-Vice President Mike Pence and the members of both congressional chambers who were targeted by the rioters.

Does that tell you all you need to know about the individual who now stands trial in the Senate for inciting the rioters to commit the crimes against the nation?

I need to know nothing more about this individual.

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GOP can’t face truth?

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The TV cameras didn’t allow us to watch the members of the U.S. Senate jury that heard the arguments presented by the House of Reps’ managers prosecuting the case against Donald J. Trump.

The managers wrapped up their presentation today in the second impeachment trial of Trump, who is accused of inciting an insurrection. It occurred on Jan. 6. The mob stormed Capitol Hill seeking to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Some reporting from the Senate, though, takes me back to something I witnessed in early 2019 in Amarillo, while covering a school board meeting. I’ll get to that in a second.

The Senate reporting tells us how Republican senators looked away from the hideous video of the riot presented by the House managers. They were seen doodling on note pads, leaving the Senate altogether, looking away, not paying attention to what senators were asked to watch. Why is that? They appear to be hiding from the reality of the ghastly insurrection for which Donald Trump stands accused of inciting.

In January 2019, my wife and I traveled back to Amarillo — where we lived for 23 years — to visit our son. The Amarillo public school district’s board was meeting one night. The board had just received a resignation letter from a high school girls volleyball coach, Kori Clements, who accused one of the school trustees of bullying her and of interfering in her coaching decisions. The trustee’s daughter played on the high school team and she believed the coach wasn’t giving her little darlin’ enough playing time.

The school board had a public hearing one evening. Residents were invited to speak to the board about the coach’s resignation, which caused quite an uproar in the community.

Every one of the residents who spoke to the board scolded them for the way the coach was treated. They admonished the trustee in question — Renee McCown, who has since resigned — for her conduct in pressuring the coach, forcing her to resign from a vaunted high school athletic program.

Where am I going with this? McCown never looked up from whatever she was looking at while her bosses — the taxpayers — were scolding her; nor did her board colleagues. They all should have looked them in the eye. I thought at the time it was a disgraceful display of arrogance. And I said so.

Trustees should have looked at those who scolded them | High Plains Blogger

The same sort of arrogance played out in the Senate as GOP senators didn’t bother to look at the horror that an ex-president wrought with his inciteful rhetoric.

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Lesson needs to be learned

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Well, my fellow Americans … we have been treated to a serious lesson on the fragility, yet sturdiness, of our democracy.

The first half of the Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial has concluded in the U.S. Senate. The House of Representatives prosecutors — members of the House, the managers — made, in my view, a compelling case for conviction. That Trump incited an insurrection against the government he took an oath to protect and defend.

He didn’t do either during his single term as president. He incited a riotous mob of terrorists on Jan. 6, exhorting them to march on Capitol Hill and intervene in Congress doing its job on that day, which was to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

We saw in graphic terms how close the terrorists came to bringing physical harm to Congress, and to the system of government we cherish.

They didn’t succeed. Our democracy stands to this day. It stands strong and it will survive this horrendous episode.

Donald Trump’s legal team takes the Senate floor on Friday. They say they can make their case in a single day. I am going to go out on a limb here: Trump’s team will talk past the House managers. They will divert the argument, send it down another path.

They cannot argue against the constitutionality of the trial. The Senate has voted already that the trial met constitutional standards. Nor can they possibly defend what transpired on Jan. 6. I double-dog dare them to suggest that Donald Trump’s remarks on The Ellipse didn’t incite the mob to attack the Capitol Building, egg the mobsters to smash windows, to ransack offices, to injure and kill people.

They won’t go there. Instead, I am going to presume Trump’s lawyers might hang their defense on the First Amendment, suggesting that Trump merely was exercising his constitutional free-speech guarantees by declaring his opinion that the election was stolen from him. You know, though, that it wasn’t.

Sigh …

I am left then to salute the founders of this great nation for establishing a governing framework that can withstand the assault that developed on Jan. 6. It was a full-on frontal attack incited by a lame-duck president.

He is likely to get away with what he did; the Senate won’t convict him of the deed I happen to believe he committed. However, his hideous conduct is now on the record for history to judge. Americans have seen it unfold in real time. I don’t know about you, but I never will forget what we learned on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

We must not commit such a horrendous error — electing someone of this individual’s ilk — ever again.

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Waiting for Trump team defense

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The prosecution is about to wrap up its argument against Donald John Trump.

I now am steeling myself for the other side of this riveting U.S. Senate impeachment trial.

Acknowledging my own bias,  I believe the House managers put on a stellar case against Trump. He incited the riot on the Sixth of January that sought to derail a constitutional process, which was to certify the results of the 2020 election.

They presented stunning physical evidence. They made their case.

Now it’s about to be Trump’s turn to defend himself through the legal counsel he has hired. Again, admitting my own bias, I must say that Trump team’s legal opening was, shall we say, disjointed and virtually incoherent.

I intend to listen to their case intently. I do not want to prejudge what Trump’s lawyers will present.

I acknowledge, however, that it will be difficult to avoid dismissing their presentation the moment I hear them.

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‘What about?’ provides no answer

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The “What about?” crowd is alive and well.

They are responding loudly to the accusations being leveled against Donald Trump during his U.S. Senate impeachment trial. They just cannot stop responding to the mountain of evidence against Trump with accusations of “What about the Black Lives Matter protests?” Or “What about all those angry things that Democrats said about Trump?” Or “What about all the violence that erupted this past summer?”

Give me a break.

The House of Representatives impeached Donald Trump on a charge of inciting an insurrection against the very government he took an oath to protect. He left office on Jan. 20. The Senate trial is proceeding.

The House managers are mounting a stout prosecution against Trump. The allegations that have been leveled against the ex-president stand alone in their infamy. He stoked the flames that erupted on Jan. 6 by egging on a crowd of rioters to “take back the country” by marching on Capitol Hill. We witnessed the carnage in real time. Do you recall that?

I want to be clear about something else. I am an American patriot who abhors violence, particularly against innocent victims. I said so on this blog this past summer, that the “protesters” who rose up against police brutality had no right to loot, to vandalize and to harm other human beings.

Spare me, though, the “What about?” retort we keep hearing from those who somehow seek to give Donald Trump a pass on what I believe was a frontal assault on our democratic form of government.

The prior anger and the violence were inexcusable, too. The here and now, though, deals with a singularly grievous crime against the nation we all love. The “What about?” nonsense does not hold up.

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Conviction still unlikely

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The evidence of incitement of insurrection has been searing, heartbreaking, graphic and it reveals a profound danger to our republic.

Despite what I believe we have seen in the impeachment trial of Donald John Trump, I fear it won’t move a sufficient number of Republican U.S. senators to do what they should do … which is convict the ex-president of the crime for which the House of Representatives impeached him for the second time.

Trump will get an acquittal. He likely will crow about it. The good news from my standpoint, though, is that his legacy — and I use that term with great caution — will be scarred forever by the knowledge that most senators believe he violated the sacred oath of his office.

He stood before the crowd of terrorists on the Sixth of January and implored them to march on Capitol Hill. He told them to “stop the steal” of an election he lost fair and square to President Biden. They tried to do as they were instructed to do by their hero, the disgraced president.

It won’t move enough senators to convict Trump. Which means the Senate cannot vote to ban this monster from ever seeking federal public office.

That will be to the shame of all the Republicans — and I am talking specifically to Texas’s two senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, both of whom indicate no interest in doing the right thing.

They will hide behind the phony argument about the trial’s alleged unconstitutionality. They will look indifferently at the evidence, at the sight and sounds of terrorists storming the Capitol building, ignoring how many of their colleagues came to being physically harmed … or worse.

The good news, as I see it, will be that Trump will be marked forever as someone who sought to destroy the very government he took an oath to defend and protect.

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Trump-Pence: Done!

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Imagine where former Vice President Mike Pence is at this moment and then ponder: What is he thinking if he is watching the U.S. Senate trial of Donald John Trump?

The House managers who are prosecuting the ex-president today told a chilling (true) tale of what happened on the Sixth of January, the day Trump incited the riotous mob to storm Capitol Hill.

Vice President Pence was at work in the Capitol Building at that time doing his constitutional duty, which was to preside over a joint congressional session that was meeting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election — which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Trump said Pence didn’t “have the courage” to go far beyond his constitutional responsibility and reverse the outcome of the election. The rioters went looking for Pence, declaring their intention to “hang” him.

Did Donald Trump call the VP to offer him comfort? Did he deploy security officers to rescue Pence from the murderous mob? Did he do anything to protect Pence, let alone members of Congress who were doing what the Constitution required them to do? No to all of it! Donald Trump did nothing.

So now I am left to wonder about the former vice president: What in the world is he thinking? How does he remain silent based on what I believe he has seen? How in the name of all that is decent does he maintain any kind of relationship with the man for whom he stood foursquare during their joint term in office?

I noted a while ago that Pence’s relationship with Trump likely ended when he did his job and declared that the 2020 presidential vote was legal, just and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would become the next president and vice president of the United States.

Today’s testimony only cements my view that former Vice President Pence likely loathes the individual who asked him to join the clown car parade that ran the executive branch of the federal government.