Impeachment Trial Gets Go Ahead on a Vote But With Only a Handful of GOP's
DEPUTY DIRECTOR - GLOBAL NEWS COORDINATION, LONDON
Impeachment trial gets go-ahead after emotional, graphic first day; Senators to hear opening arguments as Trump fumes
Confronting a painful and bloody moment or period in a nation's history can take years, decades, even centuries, if it transpires at all. And even then, there will be those who fight against addressing and extricating the thorn in the country's shared past.
It's rare, almost inconceivable, such a reckoning in a hallowed democratic setting would take place just one month after it occurred.
But that's what is happening as U.S. House prosecutors wrenched senators and the country back to the deadly attack on Congress on Jan. 6.
They opened Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial with graphic video of the insurrection and Trump’s own calls for a rally crowd to march to the iconic building and “fight like hell” against his reelection defeat to Joe Biden.
Trump is charged with inciting the violent mob attack.
“That’s a high crime and misdemeanor,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin declared in opening remarks. “If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing.”
Democratic prosecutors argue Trump committed a “grievous constitutional crime,” but his defense team insists his fiery words at the rally were just figures of speech — and thus protected by the Constitution's First Amendment.
The opening arguments are set to begin today. House Democrats prosecuting the case and Trump's attorneys will lay out their opposing arguments before the senators, who are serving as jurors. Lisa Mascaro, Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick and Jill Colvin report.
The defense lost a vote seeking to halt the trial on constitutional grounds, 56-44.
Trump fumed over his lawyers’ widely-panned, meandering performance as a disaster,and his allies are openly questioning the defense strategy, Jonathan Lemire and Jill Colvin report.
Trial Highlights: History lessons, Trump tweets and more from Brian Slodysko on the opening day.
VIDEO: Trump's historic second impeachment trial opens.
VIDEO: Republicans criticize Trump lawyers' performance.
What to Watch Today: Democrats to argue Trump is solely responsible for inciting the mob.
AP FACT CHECK: Trump's lawyers and the Constitution: The question of impeaching a former president has not been settled, but the AP's Hope Yen and Calvin Woodward find that the weight of legal views contradicts the Trump team’s assertions.
Rep. Raskin: Congressman Raskin evoked tragedy in his own life as he argued for Trump's conviction during the trial. Raskin described how, because of the funeral of his son who took his own life in December, his adult daughter was with him at the Capitol when the mob overran the building. The Maryland Democrat wiped away tears as he recalled his daughter believing that she would be killed and how she said afterward that she didn't want to come back to the Capitol again, Will Weissert reports.
VIDEO: Raskin recounts Capitol riot after son's death.
Media Decisions: The opening of the trial featured some explicit language not normally seen on daytime television or broadcast TV at all. But ABC, CBS, NBC and the cable news networks all aired unedited the 13-minute film prepared by House impeachment managers that showed disturbing details of the attack on the Capitol.The language included obscene chants by demonstrators surging toward the Capitol, David Bauder reports.
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