Bruce Castor took his time to make his points in his statement on Tuesday
Credit: REUTERS
Donald Trump has never met Bruce Castor, the lawyer who launched the former president’s defence at his impeachment trial.
It might be better for Mr Castor if they don’t. His presentation was not well received. Some of the kinder reviews were "non-linear" and "rambling". Others were harsher.
At one point Mr Castor suggested senators should have Mr Trump arrested if they thought he had committed a crime, which is unlikely to have gone down well at Mar-a-Lago.
He also said repeatedly that Mr Trump had lost the election, which the former president still maintains he won.
Republican senators lined up to criticise the pinstripe-suited lawyer’s 45-minute speech.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, juror, and friend of Mr Trump, said: "I thought I knew where he was going… and I really didn’t know where he was going."
John Cornyn, another Republican senator, said: "I thought the president’s lawyer, the first lawyer, just rambled on and on and on and didn’t really address the constitutional argument.
David Schoen, Trump's other defence lawyer, was more combative in style
Credit: EPA
"I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was… it was not one of the finest I’ve seen."
Ted Cruz of Texas said it was not the "most effective job". Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she was "stunned". Susan Collins of Maine, added: "I was perplexed by the first attorney, who did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take."
While Mr Castor was still speaking, allies of Mr Trump began declaring that his meandering style was actually a deliberate ploy.
He had been supposed to speak second, after Mr Trump’s other more aggressive lawyer, David Schoen.
But the Democrat prosecution opening was so emotive that they decided, at the last minute, to switch the running order.
Mr Castor’s job was to take the heat out of the proceedings and it was a "very clear deliberative strategy."
"This is about lowering the temperature from the Democrats’ emotionally-charged opening argument," an ally of Mr Trump said as Mr Castor was speaking.
The intent was to then "drop the hammer [with Mr Schoen] on the unconstitutional nature of this impeachment witch hunt."
Deliberate or not, Mr Castor’s performance was rather mesmerising.
He has a folksy delivery, and he took senators on a journey filled with non-sequiturs including his time as a child in Philadelphia, along with ancient Greece and Rome.
It was peppered with comments like "We still know what records are right? The thing you put the needle down on and play it."
At one point he recalled: "I worked in this building 40 years ago. I got lost then and I still do."
Nebraska was, he added, "quite a judicial-thinking place". Looking around at the overwhelmingly white Senate, he declared: "Boy, this is a diverse group."
Mr Castor praised senators as "gallant" and "extraordinary people," and his Democrat legal opponents as "smart fellas".
Their video presentation had been "well done", he said. Instead of snazzy videos, Mr Castor himself occasionally pulled out a pocket notebook.
"I have no idea what he’s doing, I have no idea why he’s saying what he’s saying," said Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor who has advised Mr Trump in the past.
Mr Dershowitz, doing punditry on Newsmax, added: "I just don’t understand it. Maybe he’ll bring it home. But, right now, it does not appear to me to be effective advocacy. The American people are entitled to an argument.
"He may know the senators better than I do. Maybe they want to be buttered up. But boy it’s not the kind of argument I would have made, I have to tell you that.”
However, Mr Dershowitz added: "He’s a folksy lawyer, and folksy lawyers sometimes do very, very well with juries."
Mr Castor was unfazed by the criticism. Leaving Congress he said: "I think we had a good day."
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