During his closing arguments in the Senate impeachment trial last week, Adam Schiff repeated a report from CBS News that claimed a source close to Donald Trump said key senators were warned, “Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” Shiff said. “I hope it’s not true.” And the Republicans in the chamber lost their freaking minds.
Some made audible reactions, groaning and even yelling out that Schiff knew it wasn’t true. Lisa Murkowski tried to pretend like that one comment was what was going to drive her to vote against conviction, telling reporters, “I thought he was doing fine with moral courage until he got to the head on a pike. That’s where he lost me.” (She made a similar claim later on, blaming her vote for acquittal on a single comment from Elizabeth Warren questioning Chief Justice John Roberts’ role in the trial.)
Multiple Republicans denied that they had been threatened with retribution if they failed to vote to acquit and they were so angry at the implication that they had been. How dare anyone imply that their decision was influenced by anything but their totally uncowardly moral compass?!
I mean, that was never exactly believable but stuff like this isn’t helping their case:
Mitt Romney is forever bitter that he will never be POTUS. He was too weak to beat the Democrats then so he’s joining them now.
He’s now officially a member of the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 5, 2020
Yes, that’s the president’s son, calling for Mitt Romney–the sole Republican who voted to convict Trump on one of the two articles of impeachment–to be “expelled from the GOP.” That sure sounds like a pike to me.
Mitt should be expelled from the @SenateGOP conference. #expelMitt https://t.co/reP14ZKvcB
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 5, 2020
Trump’s eldest son often takes the role of his father’s attack dog online and in Fox News interviews. But Trump himself is also reportedly taking Romney’s vote very personally and is looking for payback, both towards him and the Democrats in Congress.
Stephanie Grisham previews Trump’s post-impeachment trial speech: “I think he’s gonna also talk about how just horribly he was treated and that maybe people should pay for that.” 😳 pic.twitter.com/DL6LWD4KdY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 6, 2020
What are the odds that the Republicans who feigned outrage at the implication of the threat of retaliation are now going to speak out against actual retaliation? We probably shouldn’t hold our breath on that one.
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