The Senate GOP has had just about enough of the Democrats’ grandstanding at the second Trump impeachment trial.
And 15 Republican senators showed the Democrats just how important they thought their rambling, baseless tirades against Donald Trump: They didn’t show up at all.
CNN’s reporters scolded the Republicans for their no-show to the Democrats show trial, but they also noted hilarious things like Bernie Sanders struggling to stay awake.
“As many as 15 seats of Republican senators were empty during the first few hours of the trial Thursday, compared to just a handful of Democrats who were outside of the chamber, according to pool reports,” Forbes reported.
Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul were absent without leave, while Sen. Jim Risch was in the basement on his phone, CNN’s Manu Raju reported.
Just popped into the chamber and in my time there I saw 15 empty GOP seats. (Didn’t see Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul. Also saw Jim Risch in the basement on his phone.) Thom Tillis was visible in the GOP cloakroom reading his phone.
Bernie Sanders was slumped over.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 11, 2021
“Just popped into the chamber and in my time there I saw 15 empty GOP seats. (Didn’t see Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul. Also saw Jim Risch in the basement on his phone.) Thom Tillis was visible in the GOP cloakroom reading his phone. Bernie Sanders was slumped over,” Raju tweeted.
Forbes’ Andrew Solender with the recap:
https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1359939122941558787
https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1359932270333878274
Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Grassley read papers. Sen. Rick Scott “had a blank map of Asia on his desk” and was writing on it like he was filling in the names of the countries, CNN’s Jeremy Herb reported.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) were reading papers, while, according to CNN’s Jeremy Herb, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) “had a blank map of Asia on his desk and was writing on it like he was filling in the names of the countries.”
— Blue News US (@bluenewsus) February 11, 2021
Forbes set the scene even further, saying that a “general malaise was setting in, with many senators reportedly appearing to struggle to stay awake,” and that reportedly included Bernie Sanders, Tom Carper, Pat Toomey and Tommy Tuberville.
According to Forbes, “Even Trump’s lawyers were checked out, with David Schoen and Bruce Castor reportedly not taking notes and Schoen even leaving the chamber to speak to reporters and participate in several TV news interviews.”
Then came the biggest update of all: The Senate impeachment trial has been all for naught:
Spoke to a bunch of GOP senators and they’re praising the job of the Dem managers – saying much better than 2020 team – but still dug in and signal plans to acquit over the constitutionality of trial
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 11, 2021
It looks like the Republican senators weren’t really missing anything, after all.
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