FEATURING BILL BLUM – President Donald Trump’s clear direction of the January 6th rioters to attack the Capitol and delay the certification of the 2020 election appears evident to anyone who has been watching the Senate impeachment trial. It could not be clearer that Trump repeatedly exhorted his supporters to overturn the election and told them when and where to show up and watched with glee as they went hunting for lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence. But many GOP Senators, who are de facto jurors in this trial appear unmoved. That is perhaps unsurprising given that lawmakers like Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz were actively enabling Trump’s coup attempt. 

Bill Blum, Lawyer, retired judge, novelist, writer and and lecturer at USC Annenberg School of Communications, and UCLA.