Observation of North America | Trump’s team of lawyers “crushed” US Senate Declares Impeachment Constitutional | North America | Senate | Trump_Sina Technology_Sina.com

Original title: North American Observation | Trump’s team of lawyers is “crushed” US Senate declares impeachment constitutional Source: CCTV News Client

On February 9, local time, after approximately 4 hours of debate in the United States Senate,The result of the vote of 56 votes in favor and 44 votes against confirmed that the judgment of the impeachment case of former President of the United States Trump was consistent with the Constitution.

△ “USA Today” reported that the United States Senate announced that the impeachment against former President Trump is in line with the Constitution, and 6 Republicans turned against each other.

According to reports, the “administrator” of the House impeachment case “prosecutor” Jamie Ruskin et al and Trump’s “defense” attorney Bruce Castor et al. Made a statement for about 2 hours about the impeachment in the Senate. If the outgoing president The case of Trump complying with the Constitution has been hotly debated. Although Trump’s defense attorneys failed to avoid further impeachment trials in the Senate, the US media speculated that it would be difficult to convict Trump in the end, given the small gap in the final results of the vote.

Democrats are fully prepared to “slap” the misquoted special party

At around 1:00 p.m. local time on February 9, the debate officially began. The first to appear was Jamie Raskin, the House of Representatives chief impeachment manager. After playing a 13-minute live video of the violent attack on Congress, Raskin said it was Trump who instigated the conflict during his tenure. a severe blow to the life of the American people and American democracy. Ruskin also cried for a while, saying that he, his daughter, and his son-in-law were present at the time of the incident. At the time, everyone worried that they might not even get out of the Capitol alive. .

△ “Washington Post” reported that Ruskin recalled his and his family’s experience on January 6 and said that he once did not want to return to the Capitol.

Subsequently, the team of impeachment administrators from the House of Representatives came to power in turn to discuss the view that the impeachment of the former president is consistent with the Constitution. Impeachment managers first cited the original text of the United States Constitution and noted that the Constitution provides that the House of Representatives of the United States Congress has full power to impeach senior officials, while the Senate has full power. to judge all impeachment cases brought by the House of Representatives. The word “property” in the original text of the constitution indicates that in the case of Trump’s impeachment brought by the House of Representatives, the Senate’s hearing power is not affected by Trump’s resignation.

The prosecution managers then reviewed the indictment against Senator William Blunt in 1797 and the indictment against United States Secretary of War Bernap in 1876, indicating that the Senate had precedent for the trial and conviction of former officials. In addition, those in charge of the prosecution also cited the statements of many legal experts and noted that academic circles generally believe that the prosecution against the former president is in line with the Constitution.

Interestingly, impeachment manager Negus noted at the end of the debate that the only favorable argument that Trump’s defense attorneys can find is that only legal expert Brian Court wrote in his book that “the sole purpose of impeachment is to force his resignation. ”, And Trump has already resigned, so impeachment is meaningless. However, the Court itself tweeted that Trump had misinterpreted his words.

△ Legal expert Brian Court said the point of view in his book is to support the impeachment of the outgoing president, and Trump’s interpretation is wrong.

Trump’s temporary shift, Gu left and right, was “squashed”

After a short break, Bruce Castor, the chief counsel for Trump’s defense team, began a “defense” statement, yet his stupid and incoherent speech and performance surprised people. In the first 40 minutes, Castor spoke about “human intellect is hard to beat instinct”, “senators are all patriots”, and his own experience in dealing with various senators, and other issues that have nothing to do with him. theme. In the last 10 minutes of his speech, Castor used the cases of Athens and Rome to point out that the fall of the empire always began with infighting, and accused the impeachment case that the nature of the impeachment case was nothing more than a political struggle. , which would surely lead to further decline for the United States.

The reason why Castor played abnormally, the temporary change of his team is the main reason. At the final stage of the speech, Castor said that he should have spoken after his colleague Skohn, but because the prosecution’s performance was so brilliant, his team temporarily decided to change the order of speaking in response to the opponent’s argument. However, temporary changes made Castor’s speech lacking in rigorous logic, and his poor performance has been criticized by many. The ABC commentator stated that Castor’s argument has nothing to do with the case and was extremely flawed. Trump himself was also very unhappy with him. According to people familiar with the matter, Trump himself was unhappy with Castor’s performance as he watched the live debate of the debate and yelled at the television.

△ “The Independent” reported that people familiar with the matter said Trump was out of control while watching the debate live and cursed Castell on television.

Since then another defense attorney, David Skohn, has taken over the microphone, but his performance was difficult to satisfy. Most of the time, Skohn lowered his head to read the manuscript, without rhythm, and the long discussions put people to sleep. There are two main points. First, the constitution stipulates that the resignation of the accused person is the end of all impeachment cases. Trump has now retired, so he should no longer hear impeachment cases. Second, Schoen believes that Democrats in general have tried to impeach Trump since Jan.6. Therefore, the impeachment case was unclean and was political retaliation.

Trump’s poor performance led to a worse-than-expected Senate vote. After the debate, the Senate approved the impeachment with a vote of 56-44 in compliance with the Constitution. However, the Senate had previously voted on the same issue and the result was 55-45. This additional vote is reported to have come from Republican Bill Cassidy. Cassidy said the reason she changed her mind was because Trump’s defense attorney did not make a “compelling” argument.

△ National Public Radio reported that Republican Sen. Cassidy said Trump’s team of attorneys performed poorly

The impeachment case will continue to advance, fearing the divide will widen

The Senate determined that the impeachment trial was constitutional and paved the way for further impeachment trials to continue. Starting at noon on the 10th local time, the House of Representatives team of impeachment administrators and Trump’s team of attorneys will begin their own presentations, each having up to 16 hours of presentation time. After the presentation, the senators will ask questions each for two hours. As congressional senators witnessed the violent attack on Congress on January 6, the Senate can forego the procedure of calling witnesses. Democratic leader Senator Schumer said the Senate will hold a final vote on Sunday or Monday.

△ Democratic leader Senator Schumer said the Senate will hold a final vote on Sunday or Monday

The US media believe that Trump is unlikely to be convicted. This is because the Democratic Party needs 17 Republicans to vote for them. On the 9th, only 6 Republican senators were in the same position as the Democrats. This indicates that the majority of Republicans will oppose Trump’s conviction. If the Senate actually votes to convict Trump, then the Senate will vote whether to ban Trump from holding any federal public office in the future. This vote only needs to satisfy a “simple majority” of more than 50 votes to pass.

It’s worth noting that Trump’s impeachment case has compounded Americans’ concerns about national divide. According to a recent poll released by the American polling company Rasmussen Report, 57% of voters believe that Trump’s impeachment case will further divide the country that is already plagued with political tears. At the same time, John Bolton, who served as the president’s assistant for national security affairs, said on the 9th that Trump’s impeachment following his resignation would further divide the United States. Bolton also noted that Trump’s current Senate trial helps maintain Trump’s support and provides him with motivation to continue fundraising and rallying supporters.

△ ABC television station WMUR reported that Bolton said that Trump’s impeachment case is further dividing the United States.

(Edit Zhang Wenjun)