It was President Joe Biden who left the “hunch” today, hours before the start of the second day of the prosecution’s presentation of arguments at the Senate trial, that “some minds can rethink” Trump’s excuse, after watching the presentation by the team of prosecution.
In the same chamber where on 6 January there were scenes of terror among the senators, with supporters of the ex-president trying to break down the door, while in Congress the victory of Joe Biden was confirmed, the prosecution tried today to establish a causal link between the unprecedented events and the “incitement” of them by Trump.
The team of nine Democratic prosecutors, members of the House of Representatives, started making arguments by saying that Trump should be convicted of “inciting insurrection”, and showed images, some of them unpublished, of the violent entrance of a crowd on Capitol Hill, from glass and doors and shouting threats at the vice president and the president of the House of Representatives.
The images released by Congressional prosecutors, who are directing Trump’s trial, reveal how close the mutineers were to U.S. leaders, filling the corridors while singing “hang Mike Pence”.
Among the first to enter the Capitol were uniformed in combat clothing and members of extremist groups.
Vice President Pence, who was presiding over the Congressional session to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump, which earned him his censorship, is shown to be rushed to a safe location with his family, the sparse away from invaders.
House of Representatives President Nancy Pelosi was removed from the complex while her employees were hiding behind doors.
Police officers, submerged by the crowd, frantically shouted “We lost the line! We lost the line” and were advised to seek safety.
The images show an agent being crushed by the crowd and prosecutors said another had a heart attack. A third died later.
Democrats in the House of Representatives showed a lot of evidence from Trump himself – hundreds of Twitter messages and comments – that culminated in his Jan. 6 call for the crowd to go to the Capitol and “fight like never before” to reverse your defeat.
Afterwards, Trump did nothing to stop the violence and “with joy” watched the crowd attack the building, they said. Five people died.
“To us, this looks like chaos and madness, but there was method in the madness of this day,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat elected by the State of Maryland, who accused Trump of being the instigator of the attackers.
On Friday, it will be Trump’s turn to take up arguments and, if witnesses are not called to testify – as it seems likely at the moment – the vote could take place this weekend.
In the initial vote on the constitutionality of the trial, Tuesday, Republican senators closed ranks, with only 6 (out of 50) voting alongside the Democrats, with 56 votes and 44 against the start of the trial.
Among the votes in favor, the only unexpected was that of the Republican senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, who had previously declared himself against the process, but who changed his position after exposing the arguments about the constitutionality of the process.
Already expected were votes against Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Nebraska) and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell voted against continuing the process, as expected.
The Constitution states that the impeachment of the ex-president – which would imply the impossibility of running again for the presidency in the future, something he has admitted to doing – must be approved by at least two thirds of the 100 senators, that is, if in addition to the 50 Democrats, 17 Republicans are added, but of these few are in favor of condemning the former President.
Trump is the first President to be subjected to an impeachment process twice in the same term and the only one to be tried politically after he has already stepped down.
Today, the prosecution also used videos of Trump supporters outside the Capitol on January 6: one said he was “invited” to the protest, another said he was “sent” by the former president and yet another that he would be “happy” because the invaders “fight for it”.
In the end, Trump’s lawyer, David Schoen, considered the Democratic presentation “insulting”, arguing that a connection to the former president has not been established and that the only effect of the images is “to divide the American people”.
At the end of the second day of arguments, according to the AP, the senators seemed tired and uncomfortable, with some leaving the chamber to relax.
One of them, Republican James Inhofe (Oklahoma State) said the charge “the more you talk, the more you lose credibility.”
–
