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On the first day of the trial, the Democrats used unmistakable and emotional images. Donald Trump’s lawyers are not up to the task. You do not have to do it.
The second impeachment trial against Donald Trump began at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Washington. Just over four hours later, the procedures were over again. Not in a formal sense: The US Senate is expected to discuss the question of whether the former president incited his supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6 and thus “incited an uprising” until early next week, as the prosecution accuses him.
In practical terms, of course, it was already clear by Tuesday afternoon how the second impeachment trial against Trump would end: without a guilty verdict. 100 men and women sit in the Senate. Under the US constitution, a two-thirds majority of 67 votes would be required to convict Trump. But Democrats only have 50 seats, so they need the support of at least 17 Republicans.
The process continues
On Tuesday, however, there were only six Republicans who, along with Democrats, voted to make the Trump trial constitutional and continue. That was one more Republican senator than a few days ago, when only five party members voted against an immediate stay on the case. But if five or six is irrelevant in this case, it should be 17, and the fact that eleven Republicans will change their minds and oppose Trump in the next few days is practically impossible. In this sense, you don’t have to be a political or mathematical genius to predict that Donald Trump will survive the second impeachment trial.
However, the trial will take place. Whether it will really help clarify the tragic events of January 6, whether it demonstrates Trump’s complicity in these events, or whether it will change the opinion of a significant number of Americans about Trump and this event remains to be seen. In any case, on Tuesday, the first day of the trial, it could be seen that the prosecution and the defense tried to argue very effectively.
The prosecution first: the matter is clear to Democrats. Donald Trump, as they see it, only lied to his supporters for weeks after the November 3 electoral defeat that they had ripped him off of victory; then he called them to a large rally in Washington on January 6, the day Congress should officially confirm Joe Biden’s victory; and in this demonstration he delivered a speech in which he urged his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight” for him.
“Senators, this should not be our future.”
To make sure Americans don’t forget what happened on and around the Capitol that afternoon, the spokesman for the prosecution, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, showed a video in the Senate Tuesday: 13 minutes of screaming, hatred, anger and violence from people wearing Trump hats and waving. Trump holds flags and yells “Trump is our boss.” In the middle were scenes from Trump’s speech at the rally, in which the president gossiped about electoral fraud and the stolen victory and the fact that all patriots now have to “fight like hell.” In the video you can see members of parliament and senators fulfilling their democratic duty to confirm the result of a fair election. You see a president who criticized him and criticized him. And you can see an unleashed mob rampaging through the Capitol with murder in their eyes.
The message contained in the video was unmistakable, emotional and powerful: Trump is directly and personally responsible for the violence of January 6 and the deaths of at least seven people who died that day and in the days after. For this, Raskin explained, he must be held accountable, even if he has already stepped down as president.
Democratic impeachment leader Jamie Raskin gets emotional when he recalls the assault on the Capitol.
Photo: Senate Television, AP
“Senators, this must not be our future,” Raskin urged MPs. That cannot be the future of the United States. We must not allow a president to mobilize and incite a violent mob against our government and our institutions because he does not want to accept the will of the people. ”
Two hours later it was the defense’s turn. Two attorneys spoke on behalf of Trump, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, who, to put it cautiously, did not seem particularly glamorous lawyers in the past and were not always up to date on Tuesday either. They dealt only marginally with Jan.6 and Trump’s speech.
Trump, the victim
Of course, the violence on that day was completely unforgivable and must be harshly condemned, Castor said. But blaming Trump for it is wrong. In his speech, the president only made use of his constitutional right to express his opinion freely and “firmly”. Donald Trump – a deplorable victim of censorship and “cancel culture”.
After that, Trump’s attorneys shifted the focus of their defense to formal matters. The constitution, they argued, only allows impeachment proceedings against a sitting president. But Trump has not been in office since January 20, but a “private citizen” on whom a parliament does not have to judge. In this sense, the impeachment charge should be dismissed due to the lack of competence of Congress.
Also, when the House of Representatives wrote the indictment and voted on it, it violated all the rules of a fair trial, Schoen said. He had not investigated or heard witnesses, nor had he given Trump the opportunity to subpoena witnesses or be represented by an attorney. The conclusion, defenders concluded, was that the entire process was an unconstitutional event, a political spectacle motivated purely by a desire for revenge. In truth, the Democrats just wanted Trump to be convicted so that he could not run for office again. “You are afraid of democracy,” Castor accused the Democrats.
Formal arguments are always a popular excuse to avoid a delicate decision.
At least some of these arguments are understandable. There are well-known constitutional lawyers who doubt that Congress can challenge an impeachment of a president who has left office. But there are also law professors who think exactly the opposite: two lawyers, three opinions, that’s how it is sometimes.
Ironically, this dispute is irrelevant and decisive for Trump’s trial. The question of constitutionality is irrelevant because in the end, the House of Representatives and the Senate, two political bodies, decide on the accusation and pass judgment. Politicians, not lawyers, have Trump’s political future in their hands.
But that in turn gives the question of whether impeachment is legally compliant or illegal an extremely important meaning. Because behind the argument that Trump should no longer be impeached at all for constitutional reasons, there are many, many Republican senators who do not dare to pass a substantive judgment on the deeds and words of the still influential former president on March 6. it fell. Formal arguments are always a popular excuse to avoid a delicate decision.
How this works in practice could be seen on Tuesday. 44 Republicans voted against the continuation of the process, allegedly due to constitutional concerns. Only six Republicans voted with Democrats for the process to continue. It will not be enough to condemn Trump.
