Trump Complained About His Impeachment Defense Ratings, Because #Priorities

As President Donald Trump's impeachment trial continues into the weekend of Jan. 25, the president has expressed his discontent with the trial setup. When the Senate approved its final rules for the trial in the early hours of Jan. 22, the House impeachment managers and Trump's legal team each received 24 hours over three days to make their opening arguments. As a result, Trump's lawyers won't be able to start delivering their opening arguments until Saturday, Jan. 25, and Trump's tweet about his impeachment defense ratings made it clear that the president and former reality TV star was not thrilled.

“After having been treated unbelievably unfairly in the House, and then having to endure hour after hour of lies, fraud & deception by Shifty Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer & their crew, looks like my lawyers will be forced to start on Saturday, which is called Death Valley in T.V.,” Trump tweeted on Jan. 24.

According to The Daily Beast, Trump appeared to be complaining that nobody would tune in to his lawyers' defense if it aired on a Saturday. The president has spent months complaining about the impeachment process, and has repeatedly dismissed it as a "hoax." In a statement to Elite Daily back in September, the White House described the impeachment inquiry into Trump as a Democratic effort to "weaponize politics." But the target of Trump's latest complaint — which focuses on TV ratings rather than the fact that he was impeached — is, just maybe, missing the biggest point here?

According to the Associated Press, many TV executives appeared to determine that Trump's impeachment trial did not merit a primetime spot on their networks. Of all the major networks, only CNN and MSNBC have so far played the entire trial. ABC, CBS, and NBC, on the other hand, did not interrupt their regularly scheduled programming to show trial proceedings. In fact, the AP predicted that most major networks would not show the full impeachment trial unless something major or unexpected were to happen.

However, this hasn't stopped the House's impeachment managers from painstakingly making their case. Democrats have carefully presented their evidence in a TV-friendly way, per Politico, and are working hard to convince centrist Republicans to subpoena key witnesses and documents during the second half of the trial. In the meantime, Trump has been tweeting nonstop about impeachment. As it turns out, poor TV ratings weren't all the president had to complain about, and he shared several demeaning nicknames for his political opponents and attacked the impeachment proceedings.

Throughout the day on Jan. 24, Trump suggested that the "Impeachment Hoax is interfering with the 2020 Election," retweeted accusations about Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's supposed "partisan threats," and appeared to argue that former President Barack Obama was to blame for the recent uptick in conservative federal judges and Supreme Court justices.

As Trump's impeachment trial continues, his legal team will have 24 hours to present its opening arguments. Trump's lawyers will start presenting on Saturday, Jan. 25, though according to Politico, they might not use their full 24 hours. After both sides have made their arguments, senators will have a fixed amount of time to pose questions. Then, the Senate will deliberate once again on whether or not to subpoena key witnesses and documents, which some GOP senators have said they would be open to later in the trial. It's only after these deliberations — and any testimony that ends up being admitted — that the Senate will vote on whether to acquit Trump or remove him from office.