Indivisibles,

It’s a historic day -- Trump’s Senate impeachment trial begins this afternoon -- but the rules proposed by Mitch McConnell are anything but fair. 

Over the weekend, McConnell sent over his proposal for the trial which spells out that each side will have 24 hours split between two days to present their case -- that’s 12 hours each day. Basically, McConnell wants to have his sham “trial” in the middle of the night when no one’s watching. 

Another proposed garbage rule: McConnell won’t guarantee any new witness testimony (like from John Bolton, who compared what Donald Trump was doing to “a drug deal”) or any evidence already established by the House -- instead there must be a vote to have it included in the trial. This means that Republican Senators are planning on holding a sham “trial” without witnesses or evidence. 

In short: it’s disgraceful. Especially when a new poll shows that 51% of Americans say Trump should be removed and 69% say the Senate trial should feature new witnesses.¹ Luckily, these proposals have to be voted on, so there’s still time to increase the pressure on Senators before the trial kicks off, and throughout the coming weeks. 

Quick choose-your-own-adventure for advocacy: 

If you have a Republican Senator -- ESPECIALLY Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, or Joni Ernst -- call them now and demand that they:  

1. Reject the Senate resolution as it’s currently written. 
2. Support witnesses, depositions, and the public release of testimony. 
3. Reject McConnell’s attempt to have this play out in the middle of the night, as it prevents the American people from watching the trial.

Make sure to tell them that to go forward with the proposed rules is to be complicit in a cover-up more appalling than Watergate, not to mention a violation of the oath they took to protect our democracy and the constitution. 

If you have a Democratic Senator -- call them and demand that they speak out loudly and firmly against the Senate rules resolution. Also, chances are they’ve been good on impeachment, so don’t forget to give them some positive feedback -- they probably get a lot of negative calls, and giving them some positive reinforcement can give them leverage with their colleagues to continue to vote the right way. (If your senator is Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin, or Doug Jones, they can probably use extra encouragement!)

Finally, please consider donating $10 to Indivisible today. We’re paying for ads, tools (like the ones we liked to above), and events, along with the resources and organizing to push for a real impeachment trial, but we’ve already spent nearly $300,000 and this fight is far from over. We can’t do this without you.

In solidarity,
Indivisible Team

1. "CNN poll: 51% say Senate should remove Trump from office"