The second impeachment or impeachment against Donald Trump, he arrived at the Senate on Monday and gave the starting signal to a parallel process: last test of the power of the former president over the Republican Party, which will have to take a picture again and decide whether to acquit or condemn the New York tycoon after the assault on Congress on January 6 by a mob that he himself incited and that tried to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden as the new president. Trump is facing the charge of “incitement to insurrection” for the revolt, which claimed five lives and took place after two months of infunding about alleged electoral fraud.
The calls managers of the impeachment, a group of nine Democratic congressmen charged with prosecuting the trial against the former Republican president, ceremoniously marched at seven in the afternoon from the House of Representatives to the Senate to officially transfer the indictment to Trump. During this process, the upper house becomes a court and the senators become members of the jury who, in addition to their guilt or innocence, must vote on their future disqualification. This Tuesday they will be sworn in as such and will issue the summons for the former president.
It’s about a impeachment unprecedented, with the affected person already outside the White House, and takes place after an express procedure in the House of Representatives. The trial will begin the week of February 8. Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement last week to postpone it until then so that, on the one hand, the defense of the tycoon has time to prepare, and, on the other, the Senate can confirm the members of the new Government of States States nominated by new president Joe Biden, who was sworn in less than a week ago. The last impeachment, in which Trump was tried for his pressure on Ukraine so that the justice of that country would seek dirty laundry on Biden, lasted three weeks, but this will be shorter, according to some Democrats.
For Republicans, the case stirs internal divisions. Great swords of the Grand Old Party such as Senator Mitt Romney or the leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnelll, have publicly condemned the performance of the president and have held him responsible for the attack on the Capitol, although they have not made public their willingness to condemn the former president. Others, like Senator Marco Rubio, of Florida, have called it “stupid” to carry out a trial against Trump now, who is no longer in government, because of the divisive effect in the country.
The necessary votes
The verdict requires the support of two-thirds of the senators, 67 of the 100, and Republicans and Democrats are tied, 50 to 50, so it would take the support of 17 from his own party to find him guilty. In that of a year ago, Trump was acquitted of abuse of power – by 52 votes to 48 – and of obstruction of Congress – by 53 to 47 – with all Democrats against. Today the conservatives are no longer a bloc in support of the president, no longer in the White House. On January 13, when the House of Representatives approved the impeachment, 10 Republicans voted alongside 222 Democrats. Even so, the guilty verdict still looks difficult. In addition to the senators who heartily support the president, many also vote fearful of the tycoon’s polecat on the street and the rejection at the polls that they may suffer if he is convicted.
In its argumentative summary, the House of Representatives does not only argue Trump’s action on January 6, but also his behavior during the previous months, spreading falsehoods about alleged electoral irregularities and pressuring officials to reverse the result, alluding to the phone calls to Georgia authorities revealed by The Washington Post or public appeals to former Vice President Mike Pence. Regarding the day of the assault, remember his “incendiary speech.” How that January 6 urged them to march to the Capitol to protest against the confirmation of “an illegitimate president.” “If you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore,” he told them.
Unlike then, it will not be the Chief Justice, Justice John Roberts, who presides over the process, something the Constitution requires when the procedure affects a sitting president. He will be the oldest Democratic Senator in the House, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont. Lehany, 80, has been a senator since 1974 and serves as president pro tempore of the Senate from a few days ago, when the Democrats regained effective control of this House, although they are tied in seats with the Republicans. The country’s vice president, Kamala Harris, who is also the president of the Senate, has a tiebreaker vote.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/trumps-impeachment-reaches-the-senate-and-tests-his-ascendancy-in-the-republican-party/
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