Everyone calm down

| 4:21 pm EST February 13, 2021
Dear Palmer Report readers, we all understand the difficult era we're heading into. Major media outlets are caving to Trump already. Even the internet itself and publishing platforms may be at risk. But Palmer Report is nonetheless going to lead the fight. We're funding our 2025 operating expenses now, so we can keep publishing no matter what happens. I'm asking you to contribute if you can, because the stakes are just so high. You can donate here.

Everyone calm down. While we don’t know why witnesses weren’t called, we know that the Democrats didn’t “cave.” They’re not hapless idiots. They’re savvy fighters, and they must have had a damn good reason for this. Stop blindly attacking them and let this play out.

For instance, the Washington DC Attorney General let it be known last night that he’s looking to criminally charge Trump for the insurrection. That’s infinitely more important than impeachment. Perhaps he asked the Democrats not to screw up his prosecution by calling his witnesses.

It’s also possible that one or more of the witnesses changed their story, and therefore it would have backfired. There are all kinds of plausible explanations for what just happened. “Democrats stupidly caved” is NOT one of them, because these Democrats are NOT stupid or cavers.

We really, really, really need to learn to avoid jumping straight into the “all hope is lost” and “Democrats just stupidly caved” routines. Neither of those things ever ends up being true. When we fatalistically yell that stuff, WE are the ones (unwittingly) causing harm.

We deserve answers as to what happened today, but we’ll get them soon enough. I warned you from day one not to let the media suck you into the fictional notion that the impeachment trial was crucial, and that he’s “getting away with it all” if he’s not convicted in it.

This has always been about criminally prosecuting Trump and putting him in prison. Period. Nothing else. Stuff like this impeachment trial is just child’s play. It’s not even a real trial. I’d much rather see these witnesses used at Trump’s criminal trial.

New York and Georgia already have criminal proceedings against Trump on his finances and election tampering, respectively. The only question is whether the Washington DC Attorney General, or the DOJ, brings the insurrection case against him.

Today is a great opportunity to look around at the political pundits yelling “Democrats stupidly caved” and realize you don’t ever have to listen to those specific pundits again. They either can’t think above a fifth grade level, or they’re just pandering to you.

Let’s get out of the trap of spending years working hard to elect smart and savvy and fearless Democrats, only to decide they’re cowardly idiots the minute they do something that doesn’t make immediate sense to us from the outside. When we blindly attack our own leaders at every turn, we sabotage their ability to get things done, and we sabotage their ability to get reelected. That’s how we hand those seats back to the GOP. We have to be smarter than this.