Newsman: The United Sates Senate voted to proceed with the impeachment trial impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump with six Republicans joining all Democrats on Tuesday. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead House impeachment manager, gave an emotional speech during former President Trump’s Senate trial on Tuesday, remembering his late son, whom he buried the day before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and breaking down while talking about being separated from his daughter during the deadly siege.”I have faith that 100 senators are going to do their jobs as jurors sworn to render impartial justice,” Raskin said at the end of the day.
The 56-44 vote rejected an argument from Trump’s attorneys that it is unconstitutional to try a former president, a debate that took up much of the first day of arguments from the House impeachment managers and Trump’s legal team. . Tuesday’s vote affirming the constitutionality of the proceeding sets the stage for the Senate to start considering the “incitement of insurrection” article of impeachment Wednesday. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy emerging as the sole Republican to switch his vote after an initial vote on constitutionality last month. The Republicans Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania voted in favor of the trial’s constitutionality.
The opening arguments are expected to begin at noon todday, with House managers going first, followed by the attorneys for Trump. Each side will have 16 hours to make its presentation, shorter than the 24 hours allotted for Trump’s first trial last year and President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in 1999.
The trial is expected to last into the weekend and next week, and each trial day is expected to take about eight hours — meaning it would go until at least 8 p.m. ET most days but later if the Senate takes breaks. When opening arguments are done, senators will be able to question the two sides for four hours by submitting written questions to Patrick Leahy. D-Vt. , the Senate president pro tempore, who will preside over trial and will read them aloud.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged his Republican colleagues to “pay careful attention to the evidence.”
“When you have such a serious charge, sweeping it under the rug will not bring unity. It will keep the sore open and the wounds open,” Schumer said. “The Senate has a solemn responsibility to try to hold Donald Trump accountable for the most serious charges ever, ever levied against a president.”
The managers could then have a debate and a vote to call witnesses or subpoena documents. If no witnesses or documents are called, the sides would move on to closing arguments, which would last four hours. Then senators would vote whether to convict.
Trump is the first president to have been impeached twice by the House, and he will be the first former president to be put on trial in the Senate. While 45 Republican senators voted last month in favor of a measure that argued that the proceedings were unconstitutional, some of them said they simply wanted a debate on the issue, so their votes may not indicate how they view the issue. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was the only senator among the 45 Republicans to vote in favor of the trial’s constitutionality.
Trump’s second impeachment trial kicked off Tuesday afternoon with a jarring 20-minute video montage of the devastating events of the riot at the U.S. Capitol, forcing senators to relive some of the most intense moments of Jan. 6, some of which occurred at the very desks at which they were sitting.
