A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

Share

 

1 December 2019 — 1553 mst

Potential impeachment trial juror Daines is running ads supporting Trump and opposing impeachment

Suppose you’ve been called to jury duty, and may be selected to be a juror in a trial. Suppose further that you’ve read the newspapers, trust your gut, and have concluded the defendant is not guilty. You believe he’s being persecuted by the police and the prosecution. Therefore, before a trial is held, indeed before the grand jury hands up its indictment, you buy internet ads asking for help in keeping the accused from being tried and convicted. Would the court be amused?

You know the answer. You’d be kicked out of the jury pool and quite possibly jailed for contempt of court. In the American system of justice, jurors render their verdicts at the conclusion of the trial, not before the defendant is indicted. It’s a matter of common sense and fairness.

Therefore, why is Sen. Steve Daines, who will be a juror if President Trump is impeached by the U.S. House and tried by the U.S. Senate, running this internet ad, which I encountered on rawstory.com a few days ago?

daines_impeach_rawstory

Why? Here are a few possibilities:

  • Trump is popular in Montana. Impeaching him is not. His latest approval numbers at Civiqs are 53 percent approve, 45 disapprove, and two percent are unsure. Civiqs also reports that 42 percent support impeaching him, while 53 percent do not. Three percent are not sure. Nationwide, reports Civiqs, 44 percent approve of Trump, 53 percent disapprove, and three percent are unsure. Fifty-one percent support impeaching him, 45 percent do not, and three percent are unsure. At FiveThirtyEight, the adjusted nationwide average is 41.7 percent approve, 53.5 percent disapprove.

  • Daines intends to ride Trump’s coattails to re-election to the U.S. Senate. This ad — in effect, a juror’s announcement of his verdict before the trial has begun — is an effective way of genuflecting to his leader and idol, and increasing the probability that Trump, his prairie dog shooting son, and Mike Pence, the prince of sycophants, will fly to Montana to campaign for Daines.

  • He’s using the petition to build fundraising and door-knocking lists for his re-election campaign. If so, I doubt he’ll collect many new names.

  • He’s providing an opportunity for Montanans who miss his live, in-person, town hall meetings (a null class) to sign the petition in the presence of witnesses. Arguably, it’s more convenient to sign-up online than at the busy entrance to a meeting room where a Democrat might wander in by accident, or worse, by design, and where, with video cameras recording, Daines might be embarrassed by a question to which he doesn’s know the answer or a statement for which he has no ready comeback.

Whatever his motives, he’s misbehaving by running that ad. As a U.S. Senator, he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. He did not swear an oath to subordinate his constitutional obligations to his loyalty to Donald Trump. He’s supposed to be Montana’s U.S. Senator, not Donald’s. It’s time for Montana’s junior senator to stand up for our nation instead of for that Liar in Chief in the White House.