No violence or arrests were reported at the rally. The police, generally sympathetic to the demonstrators, gave them free rein to parade around with their assault rifles and other gear. The fact, however, that the event went off peacefully does not diminish the threat to the working class and to democratic rights represented by the mobilization of far-right and politically confused elements on the basis of militarism, extreme individualism and national chauvinism.
Over the weekend, the Democratic House managers, who will serve as prosecutors during the proceedings, released their brief against Trump. It reiterates the charge that Trump betrayed the country and undermined US “national security” by temporarily withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine. He then allegedly used the withheld arms package as leverage to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce a corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The Democrats are not seeking to remove Trump from office, or at least rein him in, over his very real attacks on democratic rights, his promotion of fascist violence, his illegal assassination of a high-ranking Iranian official, his destruction of the right to asylum and persecution of immigrants, his unconstitutional appropriation of Pentagon funds to build his border wall with Mexico or his repeated threats to remain in office regardless the outcome of either the impeachment trial or the 2020 vote. Instead, they are trying him in the Senate over foreign policy differences centering on his ostensible “softness” toward Russia, and specifically because he is seen to be disrupting longstanding plans to use Ukraine as a staging ground for war against Moscow.
In its brief in response to the Democrats, Trump’s defense team asserts the authoritarian conception of the “unitary executive” to essentially argue that the president is not subject to any form of control by Congress or the courts.
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