WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A divided U.S. Senate voted largely along party lines on Tuesday to move ahead with Donald Trump\u2019s impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the deadly assault on the Capitol, but conviction appears unlikely barring a major shift among Republicans.<\/p>\n
The Senate voted 56-44 to proceed to the first-ever trial of a former president, rejecting his defense lawyers\u2019 argument that Trump was beyond the reach of the Senate after having left the White House on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n
Democrats hope to disqualify Trump from ever again holding public office, but Tuesday\u2019s outcome suggested they face long odds. Only six Republican senators joined Democrats to vote in favor of allowing the trial to take place, far short of the 17 needed to secure a conviction.<\/p>\n
Convicting Trump would require a two-thirds majority in the 50-50 Senate.<\/p>\n
The vote capped a dramatic day in the Senate chamber. Democratic lawmakers serving as prosecutors opened the trial with a graphic video interspersing images of the Jan. 6 Capitol violence with clips of Trump\u2019s incendiary speech to a crowd of supporters moments earlier urging them to \u201cfight like hell\u201d to overturn his Nov. 3 election defeat.<\/p>\n
Senators, serving as jurors, watched as screens showed Trump\u2019s followers throwing down barriers and hitting police officers at the Capitol. The video included the moment when police guarding the House of Representatives chamber fatally shot protester Ashli Babbitt, one of five people including a police officer who died in the rampage.<\/p>\n
The mob attacked police, sent lawmakers scrambling for safety and interrupted the formal congressional certification of President Joe Biden\u2019s victory after Trump had spent two months challenging the election results based on false claims of widespread voting fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that\u2019s not an impeachment offense, then there is no such thing,\u201d Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who led a team of nine House members prosecuting the case, told the assembled senators after showing the video.<\/p>\n
He wept as he recounted how relatives he brought to the Capitol that day to witness the election certification had to shelter in an office near the House floor, saying: \u201cThey thought they were going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In contrast to the Democrats\u2019 emotional presentation, Trump\u2019s lawyers attacked the process, arguing that the proceeding was an unconstitutional, partisan effort to close off Trump\u2019s political future even after he had already departed the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they really want to accomplish here in the name of the Constitution is to bar Donald Trump from ever running for political office again, but this is an affront to the Constitution no matter who they target today,\u201d David Schoen, one of Trump\u2019s lawyers, told senators.<\/p>\n
He denounced the \u201cinsatiable lust for impeachment\u201d among Democrats before airing his own video, which stitched together clips of various Democratic lawmakers calling for Trump\u2019s impeachment going back to 2017.<\/p>\n
HOUSE MANAGERS\u2019 CASE \u2018COMPELLING, COGENT\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump, who was impeached by the Democratic-led House on Jan. 13, is only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached, and the only one to be impeached twice.<\/p>\n
His defense argued he was exercising his right to free speech under the Constitution\u2019s First Amendment when he addressed supporters before the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n
Bruce Castor, one of Trump\u2019s lawyers, said the storming of the Capitol by hundreds of people \u201cshould be denounced in the most vigorous terms,\u201d but argued that \u201ca small group of criminals,\u201d not Trump, were responsible for the violence.<\/p>\n
Most legal experts have said it is constitutional to have an impeachment trial after an official has left office.<\/p> \u201cPresidents can\u2019t inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like nothing happened. And yet that is the rule that President Trump asks you to adopt,\u201d Democratic Representative Joe Neguse told the senators.<\/p>\n Most of the senators at the trial were present in the Capitol on Jan. 6, when many lawmakers said they feared for their own safety.<\/p>\n Several Republican senators said they found Trump\u2019s defense, particularly Castor\u2019s argument, disjointed and unclear.<\/p>\n \u201cThe House managers made a compelling, cogent case. And the president\u2019s team did not,\u201d said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to advance the trial.<\/p> Cassidy had voted to block the trial on constitutional grounds last month, a Republican effort that failed 55-45. He was the only Republican to switch sides on Tuesday, a move that prompted the Republican Party in his home state, Louisiana, to issue a statement repudiating his decision.<\/p>\n Watching the proceedings on TV at his Florida resort, Trump was unhappy with Castor\u2019s performance, said a person familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n After the Senate adjourned for the day, Castor told reporters: \u201cI thought we had a good day,\u201d and said he did not anticipate making any adjustments to his planned defense in response to the criticism.<\/p>\n The trial could provide clues on the Republican Party\u2019s direction following Trump\u2019s tumultuous four-year presidency. Sharp divisions have emerged between Trump loyalists and those hoping to move the party in a new direction. Democrats for their part are concerned the trial could impede Biden\u2019s ability to swiftly advance an ambitious legislative agenda.<\/p>\n But few Republican senators appear willing to break with Trump.<\/p>\n Senator Josh Hawley, who helped lead the opposition in the Senate to the presidential election results, predicted that Tuesday\u2019s vote would ultimately reflect the chamber\u2019s final decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s probably going to be the outcome, right there,\u201d Hawley told reporters.<\/p>\n One year ago, the then-Republican-controlled Senate acquitted Trump on charges of obstructing Congress and abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter in 2019.<\/p>\n