Trump Impeachment: Senate Votes to Proceed with Trial, US Relives Deadly Capitol Attack

By Staff, Agencies

Democrats launched their impeachment case against Donald Trump with a powerful video package – showing his fiery speech to supporters on January 6 and then the violence and chaos that followed as hundreds swept the US Capitol.

In proceedings that were historic simply by the fact they were talking place – Trump is the only US president to be impeached twice – senators were shown almost 15 minutes of protests and rioting that took place just a month ago in the very building in which they were sitting.

“You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution,” said Democratic congressman Jamie Raskin, who is leading the prosecution of Trump in the upper chamber of Congress.

“That’s a high crime and misdemeanor.”

He added: “If that's not an impeachable offence, then there's no such thing.”

As the scenes were played, among them the shooting by a police officer that resulted in the death of a protester, and an officer being dragged down the steps outside by members of the mob, some of the senators were seen to cover their faces. Others appeared to be rubbing their eyes.

Meanwhile, Trump was said to have been furious with the way one of his lawyers, Bruce Castor, delivered a meandering opening statement. The performance of the president's second lawyer, David Schoen, perhaps aware of a CNN report that said the former president was yelling at his television in Florida, was markedly punchier.

“The transition of power is always the most dangerous moment for democracies. Every historian will tell you that. We just saw it in the most astonishing way. We lived through it,” said Raskin, who would later recount rioters pounding on his office door, as his staff and members of his family cowered in fear for their lives.

“And you know what, the framers of our constitution knew it. That’s why they created a constitution with an oath written into it that binds the president from his very first day in office until his very last day in office and every day in between.”

Last month, just a week before he left office, Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives, which found he was responsible for “inciting insurrection”, by his speech on the National Mall on the morning of January 6, as a joint session of Congress was set to affirm the electoral college votes of all 50 states, and sign off on the final step before Joe Biden became president.

Democrats argued that they indeed were authorized to pursue Trump even though he had left office, pointing out that he had been impeached by the House for acts committed while he was still president.

Trump’s lawyers sought to suggest the prosecution was both outside of the remit of the constitution, and harmful to the country.

A vote was called on whether or not the Senate had the constitutional authority to try the case against Trump, given he is no longer president.

A total of six Republicans joined with Democrats to decide 56 to 44 that it did, one more than when the chamber held a similar vote on the matter last month.