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Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13

Friedman: Trump, impeachment and catching frisbees

Photo from Senate Television via the Associated Press / In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
Photo from Senate Television via the Associated Press / In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday. Photo from Senate Television via the Associated Press / In this image from video, House impeachment manager Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.

As the country embarks on only the third impeachment trial of a president in its history, there are many unique features about this moment, but one stands out for me: Never before have we had to confront a president who lies as he breathes and is backed by a political party and an entire cable TV-led ecosystem able and enthusiastic to create an alternative cognitive universe that propagates those lies on an unlimited scale.

It is disheartening, disorienting and debilitating.

How can the truth – that Donald Trump used taxpayer funds to try to force the president of Ukraine to sully the reputation of Joe Biden, a political rival – possibly break through this unique trifecta of a president without shame, backed by a party without spine, reinforced by a network without integrity?

There is only one way: Keep it simple.

Democrats need to just keep repeating over and over one question: “Why would an innocent man, and a jury interested in the truth, not want all the evidence out and all the witnesses to testify? Wouldn’t you if you were innocent?”