WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment hearing Opening this week with a sense of urgency – the violent U.S. Capitol siege by Democrats and Republicans who want to hold the former president accountable for demanding it as quickly as possible.
Scheduled to start on Tuesday, a month after the deadliest season, The proceedings are expected to be separated from a long-term, complex hearing that resulted in Trump being acquitted a year ago on charges that he forced to expose the dirt on Ukraine’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, who is now president. This time, Trump’s Jan. 6 rally screams “fight like hell” and the Capitol storm played to see for the world. While Trump could very well be acquitted again, the hearing could be completed in half the time.
Details of proceedings The initial arguments, the senators’ questions, and all the deliberations for the debate are still being negotiated by Senate leaders.
So far, it looks like there will be very few witnesses to be called, as prosecutors and defense attorneys speak directly to senators. Who have vowed to administer “fair justice” as judges. Most have also witnessed the siege, fleeing for safety that day as rioters entered the capital and temporarily halted the election count, certifying Biden’s victory.
Defense attorney for Trump Request to testify for them denied. Wrapped in his Mar-a-Lago club, the former president has been silenced on social media via Twitter, without public comment, after leaving the White House.
Instead, House managers prosecuting the case are expected to rely on a trove of besieged videos, with Trump’s leading rhetoric refusing to accept the election, will make their case. His new defense team has said it plans to confront its own cache of videos of fiery speeches by Democratic politicians.
“We have unusual circumstances where on the very first day of the hearing, when those administrators walk on the floor of the Senate, there will already be more than 100 witnesses present,” D. Trump’s first impeachment. “If you need additional witnesses it will be a strategic call.”
Trump is the first president to be impeached twice and face trial after leaving the White House. The Democratic House of Representatives approved the single charge, “incitement to revolt”, which was carried out quickly a week after the uprising, the most violent attack on Congress in more than 200 years. Five people were killed inside the building, including a woman who was shot by police and a police officer who died of his injuries the next day.
Democrats argue that it is not just about winning the conviction, but holding the former president accountable for his actions., Even if it’s out of office fees. For Republicans, their political allegiance to the trial and G.O.P. Will hold a trial to hear his surviving arrest.
Republican senators, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who was initially ousted from graphic images of the siege, have condemned the violence and blamed Trump. But in recent weeks the G.O.P. Senators rallied around Trump, arguing that his remarks would not blame him for the violence. They now question the legality of running someone’s trial in someone’s fee.
On Sunday, the Republican Sen. of Mississippi. Roger Wicker described Trump’s impeachment trial as a “biased exercise that conveys meaningless messages.” Republican Sen. of Kentucky. Rand Paul described the action as a temptation with a “zero chance of conviction” and described Trump’s language and the words of the rally as descriptive.
Senators were sworn in as late as June last month, shortly after Biden was inaugurated, but the hearing was delayed as Democrats focused on confirming early cabinet elections for the new president and demanded an end to Republican bloody riots as soon as possible. Were living.
At the time, Paul called the vote a request to remove the pressure unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office and 44 other Republicans are leading his argument.
Charles Cooper, a leading advocacy lawyer, wrote in the Opinion section of the Wall Street Journal on Sunday that he rejects the view that the Constitution allows the trial of a former official in the Senate, a significant reflection of Republican senators who go unpunished. Claims.
One of Trump’s ardent defenders is the South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham said she believes Trump’s actions are wrong and that “all of this will have a place in his history,” but he insisted that it was not the Senate’s job to administer justice.
“It’s not a question of how the trial ends, it’s a question of when it ends,” Graham said. “Republicans will see this as an unconstitutional exercise, and the only question is, will they call witnesses, how long will the hearing take?” But the result is not really questionable. “
But a vote of 45 in favor of Paul’s move suggested a near-impossibility of reaching a conviction in the Senate where Democrats have 0 seats but two-thirds of the vote – or 67 senators – would be needed to convict Trump. Only five Republican senators joined Democrats in rejecting Paul’s motion: Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sassi of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Markowski of Alaska and Pat Tommy of Pennsylvania.
Schiff was on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Vicker spoke on ABC’s “This Week,” Paul was on “Fox News Sunday,” and Graham was on CBS, “Face the Nation.”
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The report was contributed by Eric Tucker and Mary Claire Jalonic, authors of the Associated Press.
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