Trump Defense Lawyer Baffles Viewers With Confounding, Meandering Opening Argument: ‘Just… Ad-Libbing?’
Bruce Castor, one of the lawyers representing former President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, gave an opening statement Tuesday that baffled a great deal of political observers.
Castor spent a lot of time talking at remarkable length about history, talking up the Senate and saying that senators are patriots (as you can see in the MSNBC video above), and Athens and Nebraska and the British system and a lot more.
A looooot of people watching had some not-so-positive thoughts:
If Trump still had his Twitter account, he may Tweet-fire this lawyer on the spot.
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) February 9, 2021
This speech is like a Phish show and Trey is just going on a fantastic guitar solo. go with it.
— Sam Stein (@samstein) February 9, 2021
It’s OK, Bruce Castor, we’ve all tried to wing a public talk and failed miserably.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 9, 2021
Thanks for the fascinating backstory about changing whirlwind to floodgate. — Nobody.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 9, 2021
Merrimack Webster defines “federalist paper” as https://t.co/ji6FSgsJKy
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) February 9, 2021
What is this guy talking about? “This is an aside….It’s always ‘my senator.’…The people you represent are proud of their senators…And you like that….United States senators have a reputation…Cool-headedness. Being erudite.”
Trump is yelling at the TV.#ImpeachmentTrial
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) February 9, 2021
Were more than 5 minutes in and we’re talking about listening to Everett Dirksen on the record player?
— Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) February 9, 2021
not sure trumps lawyers speech has a through line
— farhad manjoo (@fmanjoo) February 9, 2021
I guess it’s possible I missed it, but so far, Castor hasn’t spent any significant part of his remarks defending the words or actions of Donald Trump.
— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) February 9, 2021
Bruce Castor is doing pretty decently if you pretend the impeachment is an 8 am Zoom call
— Jordan Zakarin (@jordanzakarin) February 9, 2021
Trump attorney Bruce Castor sees Rep. Jamie Raskin’s emotional story about his daughter during the Capitol attack and raises him rambling about Everett Dirksen and how much he likes his senators.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) February 9, 2021
Many filibusters have been heard on this Senate floor, but this may be the first legal one I’ve heard there…
— Jeff Zeleny (@jeffzeleny) February 9, 2021
This is like one of those father of the bride speeches that won’t end and the bride is trying to hold a smile and everyone is finishing their drinks
— Elise Foley (@elisefoley) February 9, 2021
On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being a perfect score, this opening statement by Castor is roughly a -26.
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) February 9, 2021
He’s making a good case for conviction https://t.co/RJc5fJ6lXu
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) February 9, 2021
Bruce Castor making his opening statement. pic.twitter.com/JX25zdokBd
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) February 9, 2021
same energy pic.twitter.com/YIkfFM2OCh
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) February 9, 2021
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 9, 2021
I don’t know. There is a question at hand: Is it constitutional to try a former president? So far, this has been a waste of time.https://t.co/yvAeLixb7s
— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 9, 2021
Is Mr. Castor just… ad libbing?
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) February 9, 2021
Seriously, isn’t this supposed to be the part of the trial where Rs argue that it’s unconstitutional to try a former president after he’s been impeached? I was gone for two weeks so maybe I missed something.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 9, 2021
I have been in this government class before, where someone hasn’t done the reading, napped through the first half of class, gets called on and just riffs for 15 minutes.
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) February 9, 2021
I used to do extemp in high school so I understand the value of throwing a bunch of Founder quotes in a blender that may or may not be apocryphal and trying to fake your way through 7 minutes, but I kinda thought people get better at it as adult lawyers
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) February 9, 2021
Did he just say Nebraska is a judicial thinking place? What does that mean?
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) February 9, 2021
Bruce Castor is now just saying “water ice, water ice, water ice” over and over? Wow.
— John Hodgman (@hodgman) February 9, 2021
The cat lawyer would’ve done a better job than Bruce Castor
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) February 9, 2021
In fairness to Castor — who has…not been terribly compelling thus far — he just joined the defense effort recently because the previous defense team all quit. Dems have been preparing for weeks.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 9, 2021
This is one of the worst presentations that I have ever witnessed.
The last place finisher in the high school mock trial tournament I participated in was markedly more dynamic and coherent than Bruce Castor.
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) February 9, 2021
It really never occurred to me, when I have nightmares about showing up to class, naked, that the experience would be somehow worse for my classmates.
Thank you, Bruce Castor, for teaching me to not center even my nightmares in my own experience.
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) February 9, 2021
Bruce Castor Jr.’s line of argument so far, in visual form: pic.twitter.com/jOGape7BG6
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) February 9, 2021
I’ve never wanted a Senate reaction cam during an impeachment trial more than right now because I can only imagine it’s something like this pic.twitter.com/CW0SFGqPps
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) February 9, 2021
Lawyer for the former POTUS who maintains that the election was stolen argues that there’s no need to disqualify that former POTUS because the American people just voted him out of office. I’m confused …
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) February 9, 2021
I’ve never heard a defense attorney admit in a trial that the prosecution’s opening statement was so good he changed course
— Jessica Taylor (@JessicaTaylor) February 9, 2021
