The first day of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial in the United States Senate, Tuesday February 9, ended with a paradoxical result. A clear bipartisan majority rejected the argument of unconstitutionality defended by the lawyers of the former president. Six Republicans joined the fifty Democrats and allies on the occasion.
But this first vote also hinted at a new acquittal. The conviction of Donald Trump, prior to a possible ban on standing in an election, requires a qualified majority of sixty-seven votes. It would therefore be necessary that at least seventeen Republicans, three times more than Tuesday, decide to break ranks at the end of the hearings, which seems improbable for the moment.
It is rare to be both a juror and a witness in an impeachment trial. Elected officials called upon to speak out after the indictment of Donald Trump by the House of Representatives on January 13 for “Incitement to insurgency”, are however in this case. They were sitting to certify the results of the presidential election on January 6 when a crowd of supporters of the president, heated to white by a speech delivered moments earlier, forced the doors of the Capitol. Five people had died during this unprecedented bout of violence that led to the second impeachment of the republican.
Elected officials relived those dramatic hours when Democratic House prosecutors released a thirteen-minute film made up of videos filmed primarily by insurgents. They were juxtaposed with the deeds and gestures, that day, of the one who was still president and who for two months denied the legitimacy of the victory of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, in the November election.
“People died that day”
It was for prosecutors to rekindle these memories before the former president’s lawyers systematically deviate from the facts with which he is accused: the interview of conspiracy theories concerning the alleged fraud that would have cost him his re-election, the intimidation vis-à-vis elected members of Congress who did not share them, including its vice-president, Mike Pence, charged by his functions to co-chair this usually formal session of certification of the results, or the leniency towards rioters after they burst into the Capitol.
The personal testimony of senior Democratic prosecutor, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, added to the emotion. He recounted how his daughter and son-in-law, invited to Congress that day, were trapped in the assault, fearing, like many elected officials and parliamentary assistants, of being targeted by supporters of Donald Trump. .
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