 So I don't know that I'm gonna do any more videos on impeachment after this However, there's one more thing that I want to talk about here before we move on I think that all of the outside cases related to Donald Trump's criminality are still really important and I will be following those but I want to talk about one thing that I found interesting and Infuriating that is the Republican who definitely concluded that Donald Trump was guilty of the crime that he was accused of But yet did not vote to convict now when it comes to the Republicans who voted to convict Donald Trump There were seven and that includes Burr, Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey And some such as Burr have been censured by their home state's legislature for voting to convict Donald Trump They're basically being denounced Officially by their state's Republican Party. That is absolutely um That's crazy to me. Um, nonetheless, uh, the individual who said Trump was guilty, but didn't vote to Convict is Mitch McConnell So after he voted to not convict he said this There's no question none That president trump is practically And morally responsible For provoking the events of the day No question about it The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions Of their president so there's no question about it He's guilty yet. You voted to acquit Do we see the problem? This is a pretty obvious Contradiction and Mitch McConnell is trying to play this off as if it's not a contradiction when in actuality It is he's trying to uh paint this as a principled Constitutional move. It's not based on his own opinion. Sure. The facts do Conclude that trump He's guilty, right? He incited that insurrection on january 6th. His actions were morally reprehensible. However My guiding star is the constitution and so I just have to adhere to the constitution because we all know that Mitch McConnell definitely cares about protecting the constitution But in an op-ed for the wall street journal He tried to make sort of pseudo defense of himself And tried to reframe the situation But brook cyple of the hill explains Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in a wall street journal op-ed monday Defended the senate's decision to acquit former president trump But clarified that it vindicated the constitution not trump. That's horseshit in his op-ed McConnell echoed sentiments He shared after the senate acquittal on saturday when he said trump is morally responsible for the capital insurrection on january 6th And that he was outraged by trump's actions But mcconnell went on in the piece to argue that convicting trump was not protected by the constitution Because he is a former official McConnell added however that he respects the decision of the six republicans who voted to convict and their interpretation of the constitution And I think that's a misprint because there were seven. So I don't know if mcconnell said that or the author here nonetheless They go on I respect senators who reached the opposite answer What deserved no respect are claims that constitutional concerns are trivialities That courageous senators would have ignored he wrote mcconnell suggested on saturday that trump could face criminal prosecution for his actions Outside the senate president trump is still liable for everything He did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen unless the statute of limitations has run didn't get away with anything yet mcconnell said after the vote Imagine if mitch mcconnell were correct He's not but imagine if he were correct that somebody who is a former president is no longer Legally culpable if they're a former official all you have to do is serve your full term And then once you leave anything you've done is um It's over can't be prosecuted So what this sets up is a precedent that allows presidents to do whatever they want on your last day in office You can murder Someone one of your colleagues perhaps you can bomb a random country just for the hell of it You could do anything you want to because that next day As soon as the clock strikes noon and you hand over the nuclear launch codes and your successors sworn in That's it. You can get away with anything like is that the type of world that we want to live in That's not what the constitution says and we'll get to the arguments that legal scholars have made but If the constitution did in fact say that That would be a flawed document, but thankfully mitch mcconnell is lying here And the constitution does not say that uh anyone who believes that They are in the minority in terms of opinions on the validity of this impeachment trial So the verdict writes impeaching a former president is plainly constitutional I think this is pretty obvious and when it comes to the argument that the lawsuit is legally frivolous because Trump was just exercising his first amendment, right? well, of course Insighting an insurrection Is not protected speech and the new york times published an article where 144 constitutional lawyers Say that that defense isn't going to cut it now market watch talks about how mit romney cited one of numerous constitutional law professors Who say of course it is constitutional to impeach a former president I mean, do we want to live in a society where a president can commit war crimes? Where president can break the law brazenly so and get away with it? I mean Basically, we already live in that society, right? Let's be clear about that because george w bush hasn't seen a day in prison or a dick cheney for war crimes Neither has obama neither will trump, right? But we at least Need to have some sort of mechanism even if it fails To hold former presidents accountable for their actions But mitch mcconnell like he's not driven by a concern for the constitution or driven By principle like this is an opportunist. He is driven By self-aggrandizement. He's motivated. He's motivated by what is politically expedient So everything that he's saying here is horseshit and he's trying to pass this off as like Him not contradicting himself when he's quite literally doing just that The senate voted to move forward with the impeachment trial citing that it was constitutionally permissible So your job at that point mitch mcconnell was not to determine whether or not it was constitutionally permissible because you already made that decision As a unit as the u.s senate your job was to determine Whether or not trump was guilty of the crimes he was accused of and you did conclude that he was guilty so then You vote guilty you vote to convict and this wouldn't have mattered because Even if mitch mcconnell did vote to convict that wouldn't be enough That wouldn't be enough. It's just like I don't like the bullshit arguments. I don't like the attempt to lie and you know mislead people into Believing that you were doing this out of concern for the constitution Like this is the same individual who blocked president obama from fulfilling his constitutional obligation to appoint federal justices or federal judges and a supreme court justice This is the same individual who passed the law when he was senate majority leader that prohibits americans from participating in bds That is a direct violation of the first amendment. So spare me mitch mcconnell You don't give a damn about the constitution stop pretending like you do but for mitch mcconnell Like it's almost impressive like how little he cares About public opinion like he can be the biggest hypocrite openly so where like a badge of honor word on his sleeve and like We just kind of give him a pass because it's mitch mcconnell and we expect that But no, this is like ridiculous like you're saying literally that the president without question is guilty But we we can't convict him because he's a former president like what an idiotic argument to make who buys this So presidents can get away with anything They just have to leave office. That's it It just is it is shocking like the level of disingenuity here that we're seeing and this is Par for the course for mitch mcconnell But we shouldn't just like give him a pass because it's mitch mcconnell and this is what we've come to expect This is still completely Inexcusable and he needs to be called out for this But I mean it doesn't matter if he is called out for this because there really is no amount of public pressure That will get him to buckle like this is a ghoul He absolutely does not care about the country. He just cares about whatever is politically expedient and in this instance You know, um voting to acquit donald trump is what was the most politically expedient even if he did not believe that trump was guilty um He would have voted to Convict donald trump if that was the most politically expedient thing Now I I would argue that If I am an establishment republican sure Convicting donald trump is important because he kind of is bad for the party But nonetheless, you know mitch mcconnell, he has His reasons for why you know, he did this it's not based on the constitutionality of this proceeding It is based on what he believes is going to be the best thing For him And his donors and the republican party at large. That's what this is about and perhaps he's afraid of trump's base I don't know what the reasoning is But what I do know is that the reasoning that he's citing here is completely bogus and anyone with a brain Who's followed mitch mcconnell can see that that's the case