Monday – February, 08 2021 – 19:21
A year after the House of Representatives passed its first impeachment decision, former US President Donald Trump finds himself at the center of an unprecedented second trial that begins Tuesday in the Senate, whose members will have to determine whether he has indeed was at the origin of a deadly attack on the siege of the Capitol.
Senators will set a controversial precedent when they come together to decide to remove a president who is no longer in office and who is still a center of gravity in his party, even without the power given to him by the White House.
This week’s measures focus on the chaos of January 6, when hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the seat of Congress, clashing with police, trying to prevent a formal session to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the elections.
He described the move that Democratic lawmakers see as the most dangerous attack on American democracy since the Civil War of the 1860s.
The attack sparked panic among members of Congress, whose participants were targeting them, and sparked anger among many, prompting Democrats to start impeachment proceedings against Trump to coincide with the end of his presidential term. On January 13, the House of Representatives charged him with “inciting revolt”, making him the only US president to be impeached twice.
No US president has ever been convicted in an impeachment trial. Meanwhile, Democrats aim throughout the trial to prevent Trump from holding federal office in the future, if they can achieve the goal of his conviction.
U.S. media networks covered the attack on Capitol Hill with live broadcasts, and there are thousands of photos and video recordings of the facts, including those that show some participants insisting that Trump “wants us here”. While the former President Donald John Trump was calling his supporters to march in the front of the Congress peacefully and patriotically and make your voice to be heard.
Trump’s opponents say he played a role in the attack by violating his oath and inciting his supporters. But the Republican billionaire and his allies insist the lawsuit itself is unconstitutional because the Senate can convict a sitting president and remove him from office, but it cannot do so against an ordinary citizen.
This approach would allow Trump’s defense team and Republican senators to bypass the mission of defending the tweets and harsh criticisms he leveled before the violence.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has assembled a team of nine Democrats to administer impeachment proceedings and bring charges against Trump, insisted on the need for a trial, saying failing to convict him would hurt American democracy, and she told reporters on Thursday: “We’ll see if the Senate is courageous or cowardly.”
Explosive cannon
Trump’s conviction would require the votes of more than two-thirds of the Senate, meaning 17 Republicans will have to separate from the rest of the party and join the 50 Democrats, in a scenario that seems unlikely at this time.
While Trump still maintains strong support from his electoral base, the attack may have reduced his popularity, which is not in the best interests of the 74-year-old former president, who liked the idea of himself. re-run for president in 2024.
Democrats handling the impeachment process not only intend to adhere to legal theories at the hearing, and a memo summarizing their arguments reveals the tone they will use, accusing Trump of “brewing an explosive barrel , to strike a match, and then seek personal benefit from the chaos that followed. They also indicated their intention to use many of Trump’s public statements against him, including the speech he gave on January 6 before the attack in front of a crowd of his supporters near the White House, where he took them. called to “show their strength.”
Trump said at the time: “You will never take back our country if you are weak”, calling on them to “fight fiercely”. As for his defense attorneys, they focused in their statement on two points, namely that the trial is a “sham” because Trump cannot be removed from a position in which he is no longer in him. , and that the purpose of his speech was to question the election results, while his January 6 statements are only within the framework of freedom of expression. Protected by the constitution. The characteristics of the trial have not yet been defined, which will require the approval of a majority of senators.
While Democrats have not indicated what evidence they will use or what witnesses they will call, like the Capitol Police officers, the former president’s team declined to call Trump to testify; The media say Democrats are not considering issuing a subpoena to force him to attend.
For their part, Republicans who seem divided over the future of the party do not want to discuss the controversial issue of the trial for long. Moreover, many Democrats prefer to quickly turn the page to allow Congress to approve Biden’s priority proposals, such as a massive economic bailout to counter the repercussions of “Covid-19.”
