WASHINGTON—There isn’t much more to say about how Congressman Adam Schiff wrapped things up late Thursday night. It was another epic defense of the constitutional design and the rule of law. It was shot through with authentic passion. It was studded with impressive aphorisms that, if there is any justice left in the world, schoolchildren will have to memorize well into the next century. He concluded with an appeal to a higher purpose even than the Constitution itself.

If right doesn't matter, it doesn't matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn't matter how brilliant the Framers were. It doesn't matter how good or bad by the advocacy of the trial or how well written the oath of impartiality is. If right doesn't matter, we are lost. If the truth doesn't matter we are lost. The Framers could not protect us from ourselves if right and truth don't matter. And you know what he did was not right. That's what they do in the old country where Colonel Vindman's father came from, the old country that my great-grandfather came from. Or the old country that your ancestors came from or maybe you came from.

But here, right is supposed to matter. It's what's made us the greatest nation on earth. No Constitution can protect us. Right doesn't matter anymore. And you know you can't trust this president to do what's right for this country. You can trust he will do what's right for Donald Trump. He will do it now. He will do it before and for the next several months and do it if he is allowed to. This is why if you find him guilty, you must find he should be removed. Because right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise we are lost.



What Schiff did as Thursday became Friday was to arraign not only the president*, but also every one of the president*’s enablers. He arraigned Lisa Murkowski, who can’t seem to get past the idea that harsh crimes should be spoken about harshly. He arraigned Susan Collins, hall monitor and passer of notes to the Chief Justice. He arraigned Young Ben Sasse, whose staff decided to call the whole trial a “clown show.” He arraigned Mitt Romney, who has mastered the skill of Feeling Very Strongly Both Ways. And he arraigned Marsha Blackburn, a despicable blowhard who represents Tennessee, and who spent Thursday afternoon slandering Alexander Vindman on the electric Twitter machine because that’s the only political skill she possesses.

Schiff arraigned the lot of them. Caroline Brehman Getty Images

Schiff arraigned them in their own minds and hearts. He arraigned them in whatever common sense still obtains within them, and he arraigned them in the small, slender shards of their souls that they still possess. What Schiff presented was the closing argument in a vast and virtual RICO prosecution—a moral RICO case, a political RICO case, a constitutional RICO case, and a historical RICO case. This is because this president* is a moral racketeer, a political racketeer, a constitutional racketeer, and a historical racketeer. And Schiff told them what everyone one of them knows—that the president* is as guilty as hell of everything of which he has been indicted in the Congress, and of a lot of other things about which we can only make a highly educated guess.

Schiff demanded that they all admit this to themselves, that they acknowledge their complicity, their ongoing accessorial conduct, not only in the demented self-dealing regarding the shakedown of the Ukrainian government, but also in all the other crimes and schemes and frauds yet unknown. Many of them find that too uncomfortable. Many of them feel their consciences stirring and believe those consciences to be unfair. Do not underestimate the possibility that some senators weren’t paying full attention to the proceedings of the House committees prior to the impeachment proceedings. Senator Angus King, the Independent from Maine, spoke on MSNBC after Thursday’s session, and he said:

This is more serious than I thought.

If Schiff and his team have done nothing else, they have hammered that lesson home. The cowards and sycophants know now what has scared them out of their consciences. The monster has been named.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io