According to CNN, Trump is furious. Advisors to the former president say he watched footage from the first day of the trial that almost screams. Other Republicans are also unhappy, even saying they are overwhelmed by the lawyers’ “crazy and disastrous” behavior.
The criticism of Castor in particular was devastating. Some of the comments were startling, incoherent, and impossible to follow. It was also the Trump team’s performance that prompted Senator Bill Cassidy to veer to the other side. “It was random and incoherent. They said a lot of things but they didn’t talk about the issue,” he said. The question, he says, is “whether it is constitutional to oust a president who has already departed.” At this point, Democratic prosecutors were more convincing and “did a much better job,” says Cassidy. Five members of Cassidy’s party also agreed on the constitutionality of the impeachment. But they also voted against Paul’s earlier suggestion.
“He wandered over and over again.”
And Republican John Cornyn was unimpressed. “I have seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of speeches and this was not one of the best.” He, like the others, was especially scathing about Castor. It is only “wandering over and over”. Unlike his Louisiana colleague, Texas has not changed its mind on the constitutional basis of the case.
Castor was the first to speak after Democratic prosecutors, so-called Accountability Directors, showed a video clip showing images of riots in and inside the Capitol. According to Castor, the video was shot very well, and he commended the Democrats for that. The lawyer then denounced the rioters and made a long and incoherent argument about the fall of governments in the past and about the concept of “freedom”. He also admitted that he was not very comfortable. “I actually worked here forty years ago, I got lost then and I still do now.”
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard professor and former attorney to Trump himself, has been a devastation for his Newsmax colleague. “He’s not arguing. I have no idea what he’s been doing or why he’s saying what he’s saying.”
However, Castor told reporters after the first day of the trial, that Trump’s attorneys have no intention of changing tactics. He replied, “I feel we had a happy day.” “I stopped the main line a week ago and it will not change,” he said of his planned tactics.
Castor kicked off the Trump team’s opening statement, while it was already agreed that David Schwen would be the first to speak. According to Castor, a timely decision to switch orders was made after the introduction of Democratic prosecutors, which he said was taken care of well.
I was really amazed
Republicans were ultimately more satisfied with Schwen’s argument. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said: “I was really surprised by the first attorney, and I didn’t really understand where he wanted to go.” “He spent 45 minutes wandering around, but I don’t think he was very helpful in explaining the constitutionality of all of this. Mr. Schoen did better in the end, but I think they missed an opportunity with Castor.”
Suzanne Collins, a member of Murkowski’s party, told CNN that she was “confused” about Castor “who did not make any argument.” “The second lawyer developed much better theses.”
the second choice
Trump called in Castor and Schwen when his first team of attorneys began to fall apart. His advisor Butch Bowers and Deborah Barberry resigned a few weeks ago due to disagreements over strategy to follow. Schwen has been close to Trump’s Roger Stone in the past. Castor served as a public prosecutor and is known, among other things, for his decision not to prosecute actor Bill Cosby in 2005. Attorneys previously dismissed the former president’s trial as “political theater” and say Trump is not responsible for the misconduct of a “small group of criminals” .
To finally convict Trump, Democrats need the support of more Republicans, because that requires a two-thirds majority in the 100-seat Senate. This means that seventeen Republicans will eventually have to vote with the Democrats in the evenly divided Senate. Only if enough Republicans decide to remain absent from the vote will the threshold decrease because it relates to a two-thirds majority of the Senators present.
