Milk, Quills, And Chartreuse Boots: Here's Everything You Missed During The Senate Impeachment Trial

The Senate impeachment trial was exactly what you were expecting — in case you were expecting milk, quills, and chartreuse boots. Here’s what you missed this week in Washington, D.C.


To catch you up:


On July 25, 2019, President Donald Trump hopped on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for what was supposed to be a routine call between two world leaders. (Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.) Trump determined to ask Zelensky to investigate potential 2016 election interference based on a conspiracy theory and dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden. The American president also allegedly contained up $400 million in pre-approved military aid as some group kind of wildly expensive bribe. Two months later, a whistleblower complaint about the call became public, leading to private and public hearings from each person from Ambassador Bill Taylor, the best diplomat in Ukraine, to Fiona Hill, Trump’s top Russia advisor. The following weeks in Washington, D.C., Were filled with dogs, drag queens, Kim Kardashian and A$AP Rocky name-drops, weird turkey pardons, deadline promises made and not kept, plus a House Judiciary Committee vote. In late December, Trump was officially impeached by the Residence of Representatives. Then, Speaker of the Residence Nancy Pelosi contained off on sending the articles of impeachment over to the Senate for nearly a month, citing that she wanted more evidence to be revealed and proof that the Senate trial could be fair. Last week, the impeachment finally moved from the Home to the Senate. This week, the trial began.


So what happened this week?


Monday, January 20


The Senate wasn’t in session on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, yet that doesn’t mean the news was quiet. President Trump’s legal team submitted a 171-page brief claiming the impeachment is “a dangerous perversion” of the constitution and calling for Trump to be immediately acquitted by the Senate, BBC reported. The brief also called the two impeachment costs — abuse of power and obstruction of congress — “frivolous and dangerous.”


“House Democrats settled on two flimsy Articles of Impeachment that allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever — less 'high Crimes and Misdemeanours' as required by the Constitution,” the brief mentioned, calling for the Senate to “swiftly reject” the bills and acquit him. Nevertheless the brief didn’t deny that Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the Bidens or that Trump contained military aid from Ukraine — they’re merely stating that he never tied the two with each other. We’ve heard this line from the Trump administration time time again, and it also goes like this: “No quid pro quo!” Another one of Trump’s greatest hits? That the chat with Zelensky was a “perfect” phone call.


In response, the Residence managers mentioned the brief painted a picture that was “chilling” and “dead wrong,” according to CNN.


“President Trump maintains that the Senate cannot remove him even if the Home proves every claim in the Articles of impeachment. That is a chilling assertion,” the Residence managers wrote in their answer. “The Framers deliberately drafted a Constitution that permits the Senate to remove Presidents who, like President Trump, abuse their power to cheat in elections, betray our national security, and don't think about checks and balances. That President Trump believes otherwise, and insists he is free to engage in such conduct again, only highlights the continuing threat he poses to the Country if allowed to remain in office.”


Tuesday, January 21


the initial beginning day of the impeachment trial started at 1 p.M. With plenty of milk, a red faux fur coat and chartreuse boots courtesy of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and nearly 13 hours of party-line votes.


You read that right: the complete starting day was spent arguing over the set of rules that will govern this trial, which officially-for-real started on Wednesday (January 22), NPR reported. The resolution was approved on party-line votes immediately after Democrats recommended 11 different amendments that were all declined by Republicans, according to NPR.


There was one rule that did change, though. Right after obtaining pressure from moderate Republicans like Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and others in a closed-door lunch before the trail, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) extended the debate from two days to three and automatically admitted the Home of Representatives records into evidence, the New York Times reported. This changed the resolution away from what he originally recommended, and he did it so last-minute that the amendments were hand-written in the margins of the printed rules, CNN reported. Right now, the Residence managers and Trump’s defense team each have 24 hours to exhibit their sides. They have to split their time between each other over three days, with day-to-day beginning around 1 p.M. Right after beginning statements, senators have 16 hours to ask both sides questions. Then they determine whether or not to introduce more evidence.


The rules, several of which harken back to the 1960s, according to NPR, included the provision that senators can only drink milk and water. Per USA Today, the rules literally state, “Senate rules don't prohibit a Senator from sipping milk throughout his speech.”


Another of the rules the Senate adopted was that every senator is “commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment.” Metal. Yet outdoors of the Senate chambers, protesters and activists gathered on the National Mall in droves.


“We habitually talk about how, ‘I hope to live through excellent events in history,’ and right now we are and we’re panicking,” Lydia Valentine, a 17-year-old from Gorham, Maine told MTV News announced Sarah Emily Baum . “I think the role of young people is to stay furious. Even if it doesn't go the way we want, stay upset so it doesn't happen again.”


Wednesday, January 22


Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), who is leading the impeachment managers, laid out their arguments on Wednesday. His speech included everything from how Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate the Bidens, to how this disaster has helped Russia. He argued that Trump plotted a “corrupt scheme” to get Ukraine to aid him “cheat” in the election, the New York Times reported.


Right after Schiff finished up, the other six managers gave an assortment of presentations, including videos from witness testimony and Trump himself calling on Russia to hack then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails. Senators kept silent (read: “on pain of imprisonment”) while in the trials, nevertheless opened up to media as soon as they stepped out of the chamber.


“There’s about one hour of presentation that we’ve heard about 10 times yesterday, and around 6 times today," Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) mentioned, according to HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic. “It’s not a very deep case.”


At one point in the afternoon, there were 25 vacant seats, CNN's Jeremy Herb reported, likely because of the toll a 12-hour day can take on a person. Senators were standing to stretch their legs. Democrats were passing around folded notes. People were getting restless. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) even dropped his quill, according to Daniel Flatley, a congressional reporter for Bloomberg Business.


Outside of the Senate trial, CNN’s Chris Cilliza discovered that Trump broke a new record by tweeting more on Wednesday than he has ever tweeted in an individual day.


Thursday, January 23


Democratic managers homed in on the initial impeachment article: abuse of power. Schiff read the memorandum of the now-infamous July 25 call between Zelensky and Trump on the Senate floor and invoked Alexander Hamilton over and over again. Home managers even played a video clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) from 1999, in which he mentioned, “I think that's what they meant by high crimes. Doesn't have to be a crime. It's just while you begin using your workspace and you're acting in a way that hurts people, you committed a high crime.” The Hill notes that Graham was not in his seat at the time.


Friday, January 24


Bombshell drop: A new recording obtained by ABC News shows that Trump told associates — including Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, the two associates of Trump’s personalized attorney Rudy Giuliani who have been indicted in New York — that he wanted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired.


“Get rid of her!” Trump mentioned, according to ABC News. “Get her out tomorrow. I don't care. Get her out tomorrow. Take her out. Okay? Do it.”


Parnas responded: “The biggest problem there, I think where we need to begin is we gotta get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration. She's basically walking around telling everybody ‘Wait, he's gonna get impeached, just wait.’”


Yovanovitch was recalled from her position per year later, and her removal has been a key part in Home Democrats’ impeachment argument. Immediately considering that, she was a key witness in the earliest phases of the Ukraine scandal and, she says, was the victim of a smear campaign for removal, according to NPR.