How GOP senators are already pre-spinning their coverup for Trump

How GOP senators are already pre-spinning their coverup for Trump
https://www-washingtonpost-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/14/how-gop-senators-are-already-pre-spinning-their-coverup-trump/?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&outputType=amp&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15790198730073&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2F2020%2F01%2F14%2Fhow-gop-senators-are-already-pre-spinning-their-coverup-trump%2F

If you pay careful attention, you can see that Republican senators are already revealing how they will turn President Trump’s trial into a coverup — and even subtly telegraphing the spin they’ll employ to insulate themselves from the political fallout of their inevitable sham-acquittal.

Here’s the game: Republicans are making loud noises of disapproval about a current effort by Trump’s allies to get the trial dismissed before it starts, to lay the groundwork to spin an eventual witness-free trial as fair by reverse-comparison.

Republicans will then count on the media’s both-sidesing instincts to treat the story as a conventional Washington tit-for-tat, in which one side wants witnesses, and the other does not, without clearly conveying the core objective realities about the situation needed to appreciate the lopsided absurdity of the Trump/GOP position.

With House Democrats set to send articles of impeachment to the Senate, numerous Senate Republicans are now nixing a proposal — which Trump supports — to change Senate rules to allow for the dismissal of impeachment charges at any time. But how they’re doing this contains a key tell.

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