At one point during the rambling, disorganized introductory statement by Trump's impeachment defense lawyers, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) leaned over to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and asked him something like this: "Are they still talking about whether the impeachment is constitutional?"
"[Cruz] goes, 'Not now,'" Cassidy said. "I'm thinking maybe I'm missing something."
Really, though, how can you blame those lawyers? If the defendant fires all five of his previous lawyers a week before trial -- and refuses to pay them -- it's hard to expect better. I'd guess that the two new lead lawyers have probably tried to do all-nighters this week; I'd also guess that they learned that they're not in college any more.
Cassidy continued, "They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand, and when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed."
A bunch of other senators thought the same thing, but they didn't change sides. Cassidy did.
Back in January, when Rand Paul floated a trial balloon by asking all the senators if they thought it was constitutional to impeach a President after he left office, Cassidy was one of the 45 Republican Senators who voted No, meaning that it wasn't constitutional.
On Tuesday, Cassidy joined the 50 Democrats and five other Republicans who voted that Yes, it was constitutional to impeach Trump after he had left office.
After Tuesday's vote, Cassidy reminded people that he'd promised to be an "impartial juror." After listening to the impeachment arguments, he said, the impeachment managers' case was far superior to the case made by Trump's lawyers.
He reminded them, too, that his vote on Tuesday had nothing to do with whether he'll vote to acquit or convict Trump himself.
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