Article by Christopher Arps in "RedState":
Yesterday was day six of President Trump’s impeachment trial and it was by far the most riveting day yet.
Now admittedly prior to yesterday, I have probably watched only an hour to an hour and a half of trial coverage.
“The three major broadcast networks took a ratings hit with their Trump impeachment coverage, drawing fewer viewers than they would have with their regular line-up of soap operas.The Nielsen ratings for Wednesday and Thursday showed that ABC, CBS and NBC lost a combined 3 million viewers per day by airing the Senate impeachment trial instead of the daytime soaps, according to TVNewser, despite the impassioned testimony of House impeachment managers like Rep. Adam Schiff. The conservative Media Research Center called it a “ratings disaster.”
I’m confident the ratings dramatically improved yesterday due to two factors.
First, just hours before the start of the day’s proceedings, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and his book publisher allegedly leaked damaging excerpts about the President from his forthcoming book titled, ‘In The Room Where it Happened.’
Bolton allegedly implies in his book that President Trump told him directly last August that he wanted to withhold $391 million in military aid to Ukraine. This directly contradicts what the President said occurred.
According to Bolton, the aid was to be held up until Ukrainian officials turned over documents related to former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 election.
The View co-host Meghan McCain – who is certainly no Trump supporter and despises the President – is skeptical of Bolton and his motives:
“I think Lin-Manuel Miranda should get money for him copying his title,” McCain said. “Look, it seems very interesting that he’s monetizing this so quickly that the moment it leaks, the web page where you can buy his book goes up immediately, on Amazon. His publishers put it up. I don’t know what’s happening here,” she added. “I don’t believe that someone like Ambassador Bolton, who’s a political animal for many, many administrations, automatically wakes up and has a conscience. I’ve said that on the show before. I don’t believe it.”
The second factor that made Day 6 of the impeachment trial “must see tv” was the riveting presentation by former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.
Bondi brilliantly and eloquently made the case why the former vice president’s son Hunter Biden is relevant to this case and should be called as a witness along with his father.
The crux of the impeachment managers case is that President Trump used his office to pressure a foreign government to investigate a political rival.
That case dramatically falls apart when you point out the massive conflicts of interest between Hunter Biden and his Vice President father – who was at the time in charge of Ukrainian policy for the Obama Administration.
Conflicts so deep that former Vice President Biden even bragged publicly about having a Ukrainian prosecutor fired who was investigating his son and his corrupt employer Burisma.
The President’s defense team, led by Pam Bondi, scored major points yesterday despite the media’s wall to wall coverage of Bolton’s explosive book excerpt.
The leaking of the excerpt will probably secure Democrats at least one witness which will probably be John Bolton. But it will come at a steep price and that price will be compelled testimony from Hunter Biden.
I personally can’t wait to see how a crackhead who was thrown out of the Navy for his drug use, who dated his dead brother’s wife, and who sires illegitimate children tries to explain under oath how he was qualified for an $83,000 a month board member position with a corrupt Ukrainian gas company. Now that will truly be “must see tv!”
https://www.redstate.com/christopher-arps/2020/01/28/772921/