Newsman: Former President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial is set to starts today in the Senate under an extraordinary security inside the US Capitol. Members of the National Guard still patrol the exterior of the Capitol complex and in some cases along 8-foot, non-scalable fences topped by razor wire. Federal law enforcement officials say they are not currently tracking any “specific and credible” threats to the Capitol surrounding the Senate impeachment trial, which is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but relevant agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, remain on high alert. They’re using all the tools at their disposal to avoid the security and intelligence failures that occurred leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack.
As the republicans raises the question of constitutionality on former president Trump’s impeachment, the senate will have a 4 hours debate and vote on the issue this evening followed by a 16 hours debate tomorrow the Wednesday if the issue resolved.
The Democratic-led House impeached Trump in a bipartisan vote and charged him with “incitement of insurrection” just a week after the deadly riot, led by a pro-Trump mob that broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Republican arguing that he couldn’t be tried as a private citizen. Democrats will need at least 17 Republican senators to join all 50 to convict Trump by a two-thirds majority. A conviction, though unlikely, means Trump would be barred from ever holding office again.
Most Republican senators have made their positions known on the trial, and most voted a few weeks ago to say the impeachment trial against Trump is unconstitutional in the Senate.
