From The Hill: Republicans say former President Trump‘s second impeachment trial could wrap as soon as this weekend if both sides agree to skip trying to call witnesses.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told reporters that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) updated Republicans during a closed-door lunch on the potential timeline for the trial, though Cramer stressed that it wasn’t locked in.

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“The optimistic view, and I think Mitch shares this, is that we could wrap up Saturday night,” Cramer said.

Here you can see the new security footage released at the trial yesterday: https://thehill.com/homenews/house/538306-new-security-video-shows-harrowing-details-of-capitol-attack

Former Trump Adviser: Half of Senate Democratic Caucus Would Be Impeached If We Used the Same Standard for Impeaching Trump

According to CNS News, “Senate Democrats have used “far worse language” than President Donald Trump and in comparison, half or two-thirds of the Senate Democratic Caucus would be impeached if you applied the same standard to them, former Trump presidential campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said Tuesday.

“What we are going to show as we dive into the second impeachment trial of President Trump today is number one, as you mentioned, this entire trial is unconstitutional. The fact of the matter is the Constitution very clearly spells out the only point of impeachment is to remove someone from office. Well, President Trump is already out of office,” he said in an interview with Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria Bartiromo.”  . . .

“So for the Democrats to go and push this, it’s pretty clear it’s just a vindictive effort to try to beat him up for futures elections. I think one of the things that’s really on trial here, Maria, is the First Amendment and freedom of speech,” Miller said. . . .

“The other thing I want to point out too is we look at a real true and accurate timeline of events from January 6th, you’ll see these bad actors who were involved in these horrific attacks up at the Capitol were planning and plotting activities long before President Trump said anything,” Miller said. . . .

Bartiromo pointed out that safety measures, including an 8-foot-wall, will be in place at the Capitol for the next month or so, costing taxpayers $500 million. She wondered what if any intelligence shows that this is necessary. . . .

“Small businesses, restaurants, hotels, completely wiped out, and the other thing I would ask too, Maria, is why didn’t Democrats want to take stronger action going back to last summer, going back to last fall, rejecting numerous attempts from the white house to try to help the Capitol, try to make sure that we had security in place for a number of different measures, but, again, Nancy Pelosi and Capitol Hill Democrats had rejected that,” he said.

“And so I think as we look going forward here, what we have to get back to, Maria, is what really brings the country together, and I think pushing ahead with some vindictive impeachment effort after President Trump has left office and so think about this for a moment,” Miller said.

They are trying to change the Constitution to go after one person, President Trump because if the Constitution says the only impeachment to remove him from office and they are going for it now, this is just out of spite,” he said.

As to whether Trump plans to run for political office again in 2024, Miller said, “I sure hope he does. No decision has been made here, but we will see what happens.  . . .

When asked for his take on cancelling all that was Trump, including judges, Miller said, “It appears that only with President Trump was it a big deal when you ask politically appointed attorneys to go and step down. This is really the normal practice. Usually at 12:01 p.m. on Inauguration Day you have most of the U.S. attorneys go and step down or put forward their letter of resignation, but it seems like Joe Biden is really focused on trying to destroy jobs at the beginning of this administration.

“Keystone was the big one. It looks like we are going to the U.S. attorneys next and who knows what Joe Biden will be on with this next effort,” he said.

Asked how Durham can remain special counsel if asked by Biden to step down, Miller said, “Well, I’m not sure. I think that’s going to be part of the interesting thing to see how they work the gymnastics on that one, but you know Maria, the other one U.S. attorney that looks like Joe Biden’s going to leave in place is the one that’s investigating Hunter Biden on his tax issues, and, again, when we talk about tax issues, that’s a polite way of saying that they think he wasn’t paying taxes on a lot of the foreign income he was making from China and a number of other countries.

“This is the one, Maria, that we need to pay close attention to. We go back to Tony Bobulinski. We go back to the computer store owner, and we know that this was covered up and the Democrats were out there saying this was Russian disinformation, but yet Joe Biden is leaving in place the U.S. attorney investigating this very thing they tried to brush off as so-called Russian disinformation,” he said.

“I think this is going to backfire on the Democrats. I think people are going to end up in jail on this and I think President Trump is going to be the one that looks like he was right all along,” Miller added.

Louisiana GOP issues stinging rebuke of Sen. Bill Cassidy after he votes for constitutionality of trial against Trump

According to The Blaze, “The Louisiana state Republican Party issued a stinging rebuke of one of their U.S. senators after he voted in favor of the constitutionality of the impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said that the House managers arguing for the constitutionality of the trial persuaded him to vote in favor of the resolution and the lawyers defending Trump did a poor job. . . .

The motion passed 56-44 with six Republicans, including Cassidy, voting with the Democrats.

“The issue at hand is, is it constitutional to impeach a president who has left office, and the House managers made a compelling, cogent case and the president’s team did not,” Cassidy explained. . . .

The Republican Party of Louisiana immediately issued a statement rebuking Cassidy for his vote.

“The Republican Party of Louisiana is profoundly disappointed by Senator Bill Cassidy’s vote on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial now underway against former President, now private citizen, Donald J. Trump. We feel that an impeachment trial of a private citizen is not only an unconstitutional act, but also an attack on the very foundation of American democracy, which will have far reaching and unforeseen consequences for our republic,” the statement read. . . .

One Trump lawyer said he remained confident that they would win regardless of Cassidy’s unexpected vote. . . .

The former president is not likely to be convicted by the Senate given that Republicans control 50 seats and two-thirds (or 67 members) of the Senate needs to vote in favor of conviction in order for it to pass the constitutional threshold.

When Cassidy was asked what was so bad about the attorneys’ argument, he responded, “Did you listen to it? It speaks for itself.” . . .

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

How are you praying about the impeachment trial?