Trump’s “acquittal” may be a done deal, but impeachment trial can still do damage to Trump and his supporters

The impeachment trial of Donald Trump is off to its predictably clown show start, or at least from the defense side. As expected, Trump’s attorneys avoided discussing the particulars of the charge of abuse of power by Trump—instead shouting disdainfully while focusing on the “process” and the motives of the Democrats, as if saying things loudly and disdainfully makes them any less ludicrous and hypocritical. This strategy fools no one but the Fox  News audience, who probably dismiss the one network personality left with a shred of credibility—Chris Wallace—as some kind of liberal crank for his teeth-pulling attempts to get factual information and admissions out of the familiars in the Trump camp. 

Republicans in the Senate would of course be dismissive of an MSN News poll that now shows that 57 percent of registered voters believe that Trump should be impeached and removed from office; even 52 percent of white voters believe this. Even so, most Americans realize that all but a few “moderate” Republicans in the Senate are uninterested in pursuing the merits of the impeachment case, even more so since Lev Parnas’ revelations that now implicate the allegedly “squeaky-clean” Mike Pence in direct involvement in furthering an aid-for-investigation “deal” with Ukraine, only further undermining their “case” for Trump. The question that remains to be answered is if there will be a price that Republicans will have to pay for enabling Trump’s crimes, whether in states not necessarily “red”—or by further undermining their own credibility in any future abuse of power case. 

Meanwhile, Senate minority leader Charles Schumer has been dismissive of a witness “swap,” but as the LA Times pointed out, the Democrats would be foolish to pass on a Hunter Biden for John Bolton swap. Trump has already telegraphed his fear of testimony from Bolton, since he fired Bolton and Bolton may be just itching for revenge, and Bolton has intimated that just a little “push” is all that is required to persuade him to say some unflattering things about Trump. Biden has already claimed in an interview that he did not engage in any unethical activity while a board member of Burisma; it has been weeks since Rudy Giuliani returned from his “fact-finding” mission, and it is interesting to note that there have been no leaks implicating the Bidens in any illegal activity in regard to the Ukraine, even now when it would be most useful for Trump’s defenders. 

As things stand now, everyone knows how the impeachment trial will end, but that is beside the point. People interested in the evidence against Trump and his familiars have already made up their minds as to its credibility and meaning. Republican efforts to rewrite their own previous stand on what are impeachable offenses, and to deny the admission of new evidence and testimony, only hardens the minds of those convinced of Trump’s guilt in and out of the anti-Trump media. While the trial won’t change many minds that are entrenched on the right, just the idea of testimony from Bolton is enough to make a few Republicans squirm a little more, and if he does it will provide a little more ammunition for Trump’s detractors in discussions with blind Trump adherents. People like Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Kellyanne Conway and Stephanie Grisham will sound even more inane than they usually do, and fewer voters will take seriously anything they have to say in defense of Trump, maybe even enough to insure Trump's defeat in 2020--as if his new threats to cut Medicare if he is re-elected to pay for his tax cuts for wealthy people like himself is not enough to give some of his diehard support on the elderly side cause for concern.

Trump of course has reason to fear a “trial” that doesn’t end immediately, since the longer its coverage, the greater the facts will have an opportunity to “soak” in, and the longer the time that Trump’s supporters in the Senate have to look like suckers defending him—and worse for a fool like Trump, a trial that last two weeks or more will allow him even more opportunities to act and speak in a way that only truly guilty people do. Not all "common" voters are as dumb and blind as he takes them to be.