Last week, we took a look at the Democrats’ strategy for the impeachment trial of President Trump. From harnessing the power of social media to releasing easily consumed soundbites, Democrats focused on winning the case in the minds of the American public as much as in the Senate.

Republicans, on the other hand, have been taking a different approach. The GOP’s strategy seems to be “deflect and pivot,” playing more offense than defense, which makes sense because they don’t have the burden of convincing Americans to be on their side. To them, their impeachment defense is centered around appeasing their base, most of whom remain solidly in favor of President Trump – only 9.4 percent of Republicans support removing Trump from office versus 84.1 percent of Democrats.

Perhaps the most notable example of trying to change the conversation is Trump’s signing of the USMCA In the middle of the impeachment proceedings, which handed him one of his biggest legislative achievements since taking office. The Trump administration subsequently announced a peace plan for Israel and Palestine. In the trial itself, the president’s legal defense team used only ten of their allotted 24 hours to attack his rivals and dragged Democrats for creating a “sham” trial in which Trump would surely be acquitted.

There was also a large push to limit new evidence and witnesses, and in turn Republicans have seemingly avoided drawing more attention to the trial. Data published by Axios and NewsWhip shows social media activity for the first three days of the Senate trial was almost half of what it was during the first three days of the House impeachment hearings.

Republicans’ social media game isn’t nearly as strong as Democrats, but when your target audience tends to get their news from print and cable outlets instead of online like Democrats, it’s not super necessary. Further, FOX News still reigns supreme as the top media outlet for Republican voters. Since August 2017, House members of Trump’s impeachment team have appeared on FOX News 1,368 times, compared to 270 appearances on CNN and MSNBC.

Republicans don’t need to win in the court of public opinion, it’s already on their side. As CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin put it, “If you’re winning, shut up.”

As we head into the full swing of 2020, only time will tell how both parties’ approaches pan out. In the meantime, we at Middle America Project will continue to observe the strategies and tactics that elected officials use to win their arguments in the court of public opinion and how those tactics play out in the news and on social media.