Almost immediately after US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts gaveled in Wednesday’s session of US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, bored and weary senators started openly flouting basic guidelines in a chamber that prizes decorum.
A Democrat in the back row leaned on his right arm, covered his eyes and stayed that way for nearly a half-hour. Some openly snickered when lead prosecutor US Representative Adam Schiff said he would only speak for 10 minutes, and when one of the freshman House prosecutors stood to speak, many of the senator-jurors bolted for the cloak rooms, where their phones are stored.
“I do see the members moving and taking a break,” observed freshman US Representative Jason Crow of Colorado, one of the House prosecutors, in mid-speech at the center podium. “I probably have another 15 minutes.”
The agony of the senator-jurors had begun to show the night before, with widespread but more subtle struggles to pay attention to opening arguments. Gum-chewing, snacking, yawning and alleged napping could be seen throughout the cramped chamber.
Around midnight, things got looser. Senators paced and chatted near the wall. Then the prosecutors and Trump’s defense team got into a back-and-forth over who was lying and making false allegations about Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to help him politically.
Roberts admonished everyone to tone it down. The Senate, he reminded those gathered, is the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” functioning, for now, as a court of impeachment.
It has a tradition of civility — and for grave and rare impeachment trials, specific rules: No coffee or snacking on the floor. No pacing, note-passing, working on other matters or chit-chat. Technically, only water is allowed in the Senate chamber, but there have been exceptions in years past for milk and even eggnog.
“There’s coffee, but it’s miserable coffee” in the cloakrooms, US Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said.
“I mean you would wish it on a Democrat, no one else,” he said, adding, “Just joking.”
It is all designed to focus the senator-jurors on the issues at hand. So napping is not, in theory, part of the plan.
However, for many, Wednesday hurt. Roberts had gaveled Tuesday’s session closed at 1:50am.
Fewer than 12 hours later, the senators were back, with little sleep, for more of the same impeachment story, told by Schiff and his team in exhaustive detail. Even with Roberts’ scolding still fresh, many senators were in no mood for rules or traditions.
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