Which Day of the Trial Are We On? Depends Who You Ask.

Time is a flat circle.

Groundhog Day is more than a week away, but there’s evidence time might already be moving in a loop.

At least three of the country’s most prominent media outlets can’t seem to agree what day of the Senate’s impeachment trial the country is currently in.

On Thursday, House Democrats kicked off their second day of opening arguments against President Donald Trump, leading The New York Times to declare that we are in Day 2 of the trial.

Meanwhile, at CNN Thursday is the trial’s “third day.” They are counting Tuesday, when Senators debated rules that would govern the proceedings.

Over on C-SPAN, it’s “Day 4.” They are reaching back a full week and counting last Thursday, the day Chief Justice John Roberts and the senators were sworn in.

All three numbers make some sense. Debate them if you like, but time—and this trial—will charge ahead. We just might get there on different days. 

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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