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On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate began Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with impeachment managers from the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives bringing a strong case against the former president accusing him of inciting insurrection.
A battery of his party colleagues from the House of Representatives, led by Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, alleged that on January 6, Trump incited his supporters to violence as they stormed the Capitol Hill where Congressmen and Senators fulfilled their constitutional duty of counting and certifying the results of the presidential election on November 3.
Trump lost the election to Joe Biden, who was sworn in on January 20 as the 46th U.S. President. The Senate impeachment trial began three weeks after he left office, while the House, where the Democrats have the majority, impeached him before January 20, when he was still president. This is the first time a former US president has been impeached in American history. He’s also the first-ever president to be impeached twice.
Congressman Raskin, leading the charge on the Senate floor, alleged that Trump deliberately incited an insurgent mob to riot in the Capitol. Many of his Democratic colleagues took the floor of the Senate to argue that Trump was being impeached. They showed some of the rare video footage from the incident on January 6 in which top American legislators were seen running for life as the building was stormed by rioters.
While one of the videos showed a rush from the Senate Chamber by then-Vice President Mike Pence and his family, others saw Senators rushing through a hallway.
“The proof will show you that no innocent bystander was ex-president Trump. The proof will show that the January 6 insurrection was clearly incited by him. It will show that Donald Trump abandoned his role as chief commander and became the chief inciter of a dangerous insurrection,” Raskin said.
This was the greatest betrayal of the presidential oath in the history of the United States, as one of our colleagues put it so cogently on January 6 himself. The proof will show you that he saw it coming and was not surprised by the violence from a distance,’ he said.
And when, inexorably and inevitably, the violence came as predicted and overran the chaos of this body and the House of Representatives, we will show you that he completely abdicated his duty as Commander-in-Chief to stop the violence and protect the government, protect our officers and protect our people. He breached his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the United States’ constitution, government, and people, he said.
Raskin said the evidence shows that Trump assembled, inflamed, and encouraged his supporters to descend on the Capitol to “stop the steal” to prevent Vice President Mike Pence and Congress from finalising the election victory of his opponent over him.
It seemed that Republican Senator Ted Cruz was unconvinced by the allegations against Trump. “They spent a lot of time concentrating on the horrific acts of violence perpetrated by criminals, but the president’s language does not come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement,” he said.
The Democrats need the support of 17 Republican Senators to impeach Trump, as required by law, with two-thirds of the 100 Senate votes. This was described by political experts as the Democrats’ toll order. A day earlier, during a procedural vote, six Republican Senators had broken ranks and supported the Democratic move.
“Listened by people. Armed supporters circled the homes of election officials. Georgia’s Secretary of State has received death threats. The president was warned by officials that his rhetoric was dangerous and it was going to lead to lethal violence. He didn’t stop there. He didn’t condemn the abuse. He prompted it further,’ said Congressman Joe Neguse, another manager of the impeachment.
