The United States Senate has voted to proceed with the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
Recall that the House of Representatives impeached Trump in January after accusing him of inciting rioters who violently breached the US Capitol and attacked police officers as they tried to disrupt the certification of the presidential election.
On Tuesday, the senators, in a 56-44 vote, resolved that an impeachment trial for a president who’s no longer in office is constitutional.
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Six Republican senators joined 50 Democratic senators to vote in favour of the trial.
Tuesday’s vote was the opening act of Trump’s second impeachment trial.
The opening session of the trial was a debate on the constitutionality of the trial itself, but Democrats quickly turned their attention to the attack on the Capitol.
Lead impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, opened his presentation with a video showing disturbing footage of how protesters overran police and ransacked the Capitol, forcing lawmakers in the House and Senate to flee their chambers.
The video was spliced with Trump’s speech on January 6 ahead of the riots, showing the crowd’s reaction to the former president as he urged them to head to the Capitol and “fight like hell”.
“If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing,” Raskin argued.
Trump’s team contended that the impeachment trial itself is unconstitutional, while arguing that the former president did not incite the rioters and that his speech about the election was protected by the First Amendment.
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The initial presentation from the defense team started with attorney Bruce Castor praising the impeachment managers for a presentation that was “well done”. Attorney David Schoen followed by slamming Democrats for trying to tear apart the country.
Castor warned that a second impeachment trial in 13 months would “open the floodgates” to future impeachments.
“We can’t possibly be suggesting we punish people for political speech in this country. If people go and commit lawless acts of their beliefs, and they cross the line, they should be locked up,” he said.
“If we go down the road my very worthy adversary here Mr. Raskin asks you to go down, the floodgates will open.”
Republican senators were critical of Castor’s presentation, saying they failed to grasp what point he was trying to make.
Trump was reportedly unhappy with Castor’s opening argument.
After Tuesday’s debate and vote, the House managers will have 16 hours over two days to make their presentation beginning Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyers will also have two days to defend their client. Senators will then have four hours to ask questions submitted in writing to both sides, and the Senate could debate and vote on whether to subpoena witnesses.
Despite voting to move forward with the trial, a conviction in the senate is unlikely. Conviction requires a two-thirds majority, or at least 17 Republican senators, to join all members of the Democratic caucus.
Only one Republican senator, Mitt Romney, voted to convict Trump in his first impeachment trial.
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