From the office of Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi:

“The Congress and Country can take great pride in the House Impeachment Managers, who defended our Constitution and our Democracy in the Senate with a moving and masterful presentation that demonstrated extraordinary love of country and loyalty to our oath and the facts.

“Our House Managers laid out a case of overwhelming and irrefutable evidence of this searing truth: that Donald Trump incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol and then refused to intervene to stop the attack, even as his mob threatened to ‘hang Mike Pence.’

“Donald Trump’s incitement of insurrection against our Democracy put Senators, Members of Congress, staff and heroic law enforcement officers in mortal danger.  It is the most grievous constitutional crime ever committed by a president and is clearly deserving of conviction.  A President must be held accountable from their first day in office until their last day in office.

Politico quotes Delaware Democratic Senator Chris Coons argument to House impeachment managers for why they should not open the door for live witness testimony during the trial.

“The jury is ready to vote,” Coons reportedly told the House managers.  “People want to get home for Valentine’s Day.”

Coons felt that prolonging the Senate trial would only cause Republicans ready to vote to convict Trump to change their opinions.  He, along with West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, pushed to have House managers agree to have the testimony read into the records.

We needed to have “ten more Republicans with a spine,” House manager Eric Swalwell told MSNBC.  He cited a tweet from a former legal colleague:  “You did a nice job at the trial, but you were lousy at jury selection.”

Citizens of MAGA World are celebrating Trump’s second impeachment acquittal as if it were some sort of consolation prize for him no longer being in power. The jubilation isn’t unexpected, yet still puzzling in contrast to what happened last time, just slightly over one year ago, when Trump emerged from his first impeachment trial in a far stronger position politically and his reelection was being treated as approaching a foregone conclusion by many observers both left and right.

Now a little over a year later, Trump has lost reelection, was banned from Twitter, is under active criminal investigation in two states and probably the District of Columbia (and likely with the United States Department of Justice), and his business is rapidly falling apart – again. And yet…

Twice. pic.twitter.com/cVXGew8tIu

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) February 13, 2021

Beating these establishment clowns twice after years of BS and under unprecedented circumstances is a badge of honor.

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 13, 2021

Impeached and acquitted twice! 🤣

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) February 13, 2021

…here they are. We know they’re notoriously untethered to reality, that’s not news. But continuously being able to find interesting and novel ways to express their mania is what’s interesting here.

Addressing reporters, Texas Democratic Congressman and House impeachment manager Joaquin Castro said that Republicans acquitted Donald Trump on a procedural issue that had been decided by the Senate before the evidence was presented.

“The defendant, President Donald John Trump, was let off on a technicality,” Castro said during a press briefing.  “And that’s what you heard Mitch McConnell say:  that they let him off on what they, at least, perceived to be a procedural issue, which was because of the Constitutionality of the matter, they couldn’t proceed to the substance [of the case].”

“That trial interpretation, both on the liberal side and the conservative side, strongly disagrees with that assessment,” Castro continued, “but they let him off on a technicality.  And you also heard Mitch McConnell go up there and say, essentially, that we overwhelming proved out case, that substantively, Donald Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection.”

Noting that the vote was the largest bipartisan vote in history to convict an impeached president, lead House manager Jamie Raskin, a Democratic Congressman from Maryland, noted that is was a process question that enabled Republican Senators to cover their backsides and vote to acquit Donald Trump.

“All of them are hinging it on a legal argument,” Raskin said of Republicans who voted to acquit Trump, noting that the excuses hinge on process arguments, not actual culpability or facts.

“Even Mitch McConnell says we won on the facts,” Raskin stated. 

Politico: “Richard Grenell, a fierce ally of former President Donald Trump and a fixture in MAGA politics, is interviewing campaign strategists and laying groundwork for a potential run for California governor if the bid to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom goes forward, according to a Republican strategist who has spoken with Grenell about his plans. The strategist said Grenell, the former ambassador to Germany and acting intel director in the Trump administration, told him he plans to announce his campaign once the recall effort qualifies for the ballot, as appears increasingly likely.”

Hold my beer.

— E. Jean Carroll (@ejeancarroll) February 13, 2021

Former President Donald Trump releases statement on acquittal ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/YlYed89i4O

— Jossie Carbonare WPBF25 (@wpbf_jossie) February 13, 2021

Satruday, February 13th, 2021 is day five of Trump’s second impeachment trial. Democrats are debating whether or not to call witnesses and extend the trial. Follow us here on National Zero for updates and commentary as they happen live throughout the duration of the trial.

After Trump attorney Michael van der Veen suggested he had the ability to demand Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi appear at his office in “Phillydelphia,” the Senate chamber broke out in laughter from both sides of the aisle.

https://youtu.be/XGfbyP4pPM0

An indignant van der Veen responded, “I don’t know how many civil lawyers are here, but that’s the way it works, folks,” apparently unaware that an impeachment trial has different standards than civil trials in a state court.  He then went on to describe a deposition order in a civil case saying, “That’s civil process.  I don’t know why you’re laughing!”

https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1360634175712342018

Isn’t it a bit odd that these liberal news reports about impeachment, just like what happened during #BrettKavanaugh – which prove to be unreliable – always come out right before we are set to vote?

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 13, 2021

If you want a delay, it will be a long one with many, many witnesses.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 13, 2021

“The House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection are on the cusp of a major decision: whether to call witnesses to bolster their case. Though many Senate Democrats have indicated they don’t believe witnesses are necessary to prove that Trump incited the deadly riots that overran the Capitol, new developments have hinted at startling details that could be unearthed if the Senate trial pauses and House impeachment managers are allowed to depose several witnesses” – Politico.

New York Times: “After six weeks as a district attorney, Fani T. Willis is taking on a former president. And not just that. In an interview about her newly announced criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia, Ms. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, made it clear that the scope of her inquiry would encompass the pressure campaign on state officials by former President Donald J. Trump as well as the activities of his allies. ‘An investigation is like an onion,’ she said. ‘You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else.’ She added, ‘Anything that is relevant to attempts to interfere with the Georgia election will be subject to review.'”

“Ms. Willis, whose jurisdiction encompasses much of Atlanta, has suddenly become a new player in the post-presidency of Mr. Trump. She will decide whether to bring criminal charges over Mr. Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to ‘find’ votes to erase the former president’s loss there, and other efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election results. The severity of the legal threat to Mr. Trump is not yet clear, but Ms. Willis has started laying out some details about the inquiry. She and her office have indicated that the investigation will include Senator Lindsey Graham’s phone call to Mr. Raffensperger in November about mail-in ballots; the abrupt removal last month of Byung J. Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, who earned Mr. Trump’s enmity for not advancing his debunked assertions about election fraud; and the false claims that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, made before state legislative committees.”

“A Cherokee County man was arrested Thursday after police said he was riding a moped and steering it with his feet. According to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s office, Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds was traveling on I-575 south of Sixes Road. During the sheriff’s commute, he said he saw a man steering a moped with his feet. In addition, the moped, according to the sheriff’s office, did not have a tag. The moped rider allegedly refused to immediately pull over and after a brief pursuit, the suspect rode into the woods and then ran on foot. The man, later identified as Evan Daves, 23, of Blairsville, was arrested near Ronnell Road, a deputy said. Daves was charged with not only several traffic violations but also possession of methamphetamine” – CBS 46.

Politico: “Days after facing bipartisan derision for their dull and disorganized opening argument, defense attorneys for former President Donald Trump took a page from their clients’ playbook on Friday. They trolled Democrats with their own words, complained about “cancel culture,” and launched unfounded claims about the 2020 election. They played a video featuring objections by Democrats to the congressional certification of 2016 Electoral College votes for Donald Trump. With an ominous musical track playing in the background, they juxtaposed clips of Trump calling for ‘law and order’ with footage of Democrats offering supportive words for nationwide protests that unfolded last summer in the wake of George Floyd’s death – protests that at times turned violent.”

“And, in the coup de grâce, they offered a nine-minute and eleven-second video montage that spliced together dozens of Hollywood stars and lawmakers vowing to ‘fight’ Republicans and Trump. The word fight, later reports revealed, was uttered 238 times. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ Trump attorney David Schoen said. ‘It’s a word people use, but please stop the hypocrisy.’ It was a Trumpian flourish to a high-stakes trial, one that made clear that the ex-president’s team viewed the matter less as a constitutional debate and more as political fist fight. With Trump’s acquittal all but assured, his team of attorneys used only a fraction of the 16 hours allotted to them to attack critics, rev up the MAGA faithful, and ignore prosecutorial questions about Trump’s role – before, during and after – the deadly Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Trump, according to an aide, ‘loved’ it as Michael van der Veen, one of his defense attorneys, decried his second impeachment trial as ‘constitutional cancel culture,’ and even defended Trump’s claims about voter fraud – an issue his defense initially hoped to sidestep.”

Mrs. Melania Trump is announcing the opening of The Office of Melania Trump. Please follow this account for news and updates.

— Office of Melania Trump (@OfficeofMelania) February 12, 2021

David Schoen, one of the attorneys on Donald Trump’s current defense team for his impeachment trial, quit the team last night over a dispute on how the defense team wanted to use video clips, but was persuaded to remain onboard after talking to Trump, according to the New York Times.

Schoen survived the purge of Trump’s first team of lawyers, who quit en masse a week before the impeachment trial started.  Schoen, a late addition to the first edition of the team, stayed on and joined the new team of legal advisors.

However, before the defense team started its arguments Friday, Schoen and fellow attorney Bruce Castor feuded about who would present first.  They eventually agreed that a third lawyer, Michael van der Veen, would open the day.

• First, I’m going to apologize for spending more time than I typically would on a single topic–the impeachment trial.  I’ve been in it up to my neck, and it’s the primary thing on my mind.
• Perhaps the most damning part of Trump’s actions during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol was that Trump stayed in the White House.  As a mob invaded the Capitol and pipe bombs were found around Washington, Trump was never evacuated to The Bunker or a secure location.  This is evidence that he knew the mob worked for him.
• Trump should consider himself lucky he’s only facing impeachment.  Given the evidence, in any other jurisdiction in the country, he’d be facing involuntary manslaughter charges.  Even still, he faces millions of dollars in wrongful death civil suits.
• Never trust a man who wears a pocket square to his day job… unless he’s a maitre d’ or a ballroom dancer.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume VI”

National Zero extends our warmest wishes for the Year of The Ox to all of our friends in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. The People’s Republic and the Chinese Communist Party can suck it.