PHILADELPHIA — A day after his widely panned opening on the first day of Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial, defense lawyer Bruce L. Castor Jr. said the former president had not expressed any displeasure with his team’s performance.
“Far from it,” Castor told reporters on his way into Wednesday’s proceedings at the Capitol. Asked whether their rocky start — which drew critiques from pundits and GOP senators and reportedly had Trump near screaming at his TV — prompted the team to change its strategy, Castor replied: “Not at all.”
Castor opened Trump’s defense Tuesday with a folksy, 50-minute monologue that heaped flattery on senators, digressed into personal anecdotes, and highlighted his own past career as a district attorney. Several Republican senators — including John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — later said that compared to the taut, organized presentation of the Democratic House impeachment managers, Castor’s presentation left them cold.
“It was disorganized, random … [and] they did not talk about the issue at hand,” said Cassidy, who added that the Trump team’s failure to present a coherent case prompted him to change positions and join Democrats in voting to allow the trial to continue.
Some pundits close to Trump, including Fox News’ Sean Hannity, openly speculated Tuesday night that the former president might change course and rely on Castor’s co-counsel, David Schoen, to take the lead as the trial continues.
Schoen delivered a more pugnacious presentation Tuesday following Castor, which was reportedly more to the president’s liking.
Asked Wednesday whether he would be taking on a greater role moving forward, Schoen said only: “Mr. Trump always gives good advice.”
