As senators sit through the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, several have turned to fidget spinners in a move that’s riling up social media. As first reported by NBC News from inside the trial, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., handed out the trendy toys to several of his colleagues ahead of Thursday’s trial proceedings, playing with one himself while listening to impeachment manager Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., during his arguments.
He wasn’t the only senator spotted with the toy during the proceedings, with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., also seen with a fidget spinner on his desk and playing with the toy during the arguments against Trump from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. NBC News also clocked Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. with a fidget spinner on his desk, but he wasn’t spotted playing with it.
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According to the outlet, playing with a fidget spinner could be considered a violations of Senate rules, which requires silent and attentive behavior during the arguments of an impeachment trial.
As news of the fidget spinners being handed out hit social media, there was more than a few passionate responses playing out on Twitter.
I hope every person sitting on jury duty around the country this week realizes that if they walked out during the trial, played with a fidget spinner, read a book or sketched the skyline, they would be held in contempt & possibly be put in jail.
— KD (@Fly_Sistah) January 23, 2020
Today, GOP Senators disgraced themselves yet AGAIN, during the most serious trial this decade, with:
– fidget spinners
– Book reading
– Giggling
– Absence
– Attacks on Lt. Col. VindmanThey didn’t just disrespect themselves. They disrespected their peers, Veterans, and America.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) January 24, 2020
Playing the fidget spinner while Rome burns. https://t.co/nYfp8VXMSP
— David Hemond (@david_hemond) January 24, 2020
The fidget spinner debacle comes after reports surfaced regarding the legitimacy of the FBI’s secret surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, according to NBC News.
According to the outlet, the Justice Department concluded two of the four warrants allowing the FBI to spy on Page lacked probable cause as the government made “material misstatements” in obtaining them. A declassified judicial order went on to state how “the department told the court it now believes it did not have probable cause to believe that Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, which was required to obtain the surveillance,” NBC News reports.
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