Donald Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial kicked off Tuesday with the Senate affirming the constitutionality of the proceeding itself after Democratic prosecutors used video montages and tearful personal anecdotes to press the case that the former president made the Founding Fathers’ “worst nightmare come to life” by inciting last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Six Republican senators joined all of the chamber’s 50 Democrats in passing a resolution that confirmed Trump can face trial despite being out of office. The Senate’s remaining 44 Republicans voted against the resolution, signaling there’s likely not enough GOP support for Trump to ultimately be convicted of the impeachment charge that he instigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that left five people dead, including a police officer.
Before the vote, the nine House impeachment managers were pitted against Trump’s two defense lawyers in an emotional and at times bizarre debate.
The managers opened the debate by playing a blood-curdling video montage juxtaposing clips of the Capitol attack with portions of the incendiary speech that Trump delivered before the siege.
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Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the lead Democratic impeachment manager, prefaced the nearly 15-minute video by noting that Trump’s own actions are the best counterargument to his legal team’s claim that the trial itself is unconstitutional because he’s no longer president.
“If we buy this radical argument that President Trump’s lawyers advance, we risk having Jan. 6 become our future,” Raskin said on the Senate floor. “What will that mean for America? Think about it. What will the January exception mean to future generations if you grant it? I’ll show you.”
Raskin then played the traumatic video on a large screen in the chamber.
The video showed throngs of violent Trump supporters breaking their way into the Capitol, assaulting police officers, smashing windows and ransacking the historic building, all while touting pro-Trump flags, chanting “stop the steal” and disrupting the congressional certification of President Biden’s election victory.
“We f–king need to have 30,000 guns up here,” a rioter can be heard saying in the video as the assault’s underway.
“Next trip,” a fellow attacker responds.
The video was peppered with parts of the speech Trump delivered at a raucous rally on the White House Ellipse before the riot.
“We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump is seen telling thousands of supporters who had gathered for the rally at his request.
Later on in the video, the former president urges his supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. We’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.”
Before the video concluded, text flashed by on the screen to remind senators in the chamber that a police officer died in the attack, along with four other people. Two more police officers who responded to the attack committed suicide days later, the video also noted.
Some senators were seen looking away while the video played, the chants of the pro-Trump attackers echoing through the chamber.
When the video ended, the Senate chamber was dead silent.
“You asked what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our Constitution?” Raskin asked senators, breaking the silence.
“That’s a high crime and misdemeanor,” he said, pointing to the screen where the video had played. “If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing … We just saw it in the most astonishing way. We lived through it.”
The rest of Tuesday’s trial session was expected to focus on the constitutionality of the proceeding itself.
Up to four hours of debate were underway Tuesday afternoon on the matter, with time equally divided between the House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense lawyers.
Trump’s lawyers and a sizable contingent of the Republican senators serving as the trial’s jurors say the proceeding should be dismissed outright because they claim the Constitution only allows Congress to put sitting presidents on impeachment trial.
The House managers and most constitutional scholars, however, say there’s precedent for trying former government officials — the most notable case being that of William Belknap, President Ulysses Grant’s war secretary, who was put on impeachment trial in 1876 after resigning amid allegations of corruption.
“Belknap made the exact same argument that President Trump is making today — that you all lack jurisdiction, any power to try him because he’s a former official,” Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse, one of the nine impeachment managers, told senators.
Neguse said senators at the time were “outraged” by Belknap’s defense.
“They knew it was a dangerous, dangerous argument with dangerous implications. It would literally mean that a president could betray their country, leave office and avoid impeachment and disqualification entirely,” Neguse said. “And that’s why, in the end, the United States Senate decisively voted that the Constitution required them to proceed with the trial.”
After the managers and Trump’s legal team make their cases, the Senate will vote on the constitutionality question. A simple majority threshold is required for passage.
The Senate is expected to give a thumbs up to the constitutionality question, with the chamber’s Democratic majority and some moderate Republicans agreeing the trial is valid.
The constitutionality issue will provide an early window into how the Senate could eventually vote on the question of whether to convict Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 attack.
A two-thirds majority vote is required for conviction, which appears unlikely, as most Republican senators remain loyal to Trump despite being forced to run for cover when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol last month. If Trump’s convicted, the Senate could separately vote to bar him from ever holding or running for public office again.
The constitutionality of Trump’s trial has come up once before.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an ardent Trump ally, forced a vote on dismissing the trial immediately after it was formally opened last month, arguing the proceeding was unconstitutional.
The Senate smacked down Paul’s motion for dismissal in a 55-45 vote, with five Republicans — Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — joining the chamber’s 50 Democrats.
Trump-loyal Republicans, though, saw the vote for dismissal as vindication.
“You’ve got 45 senators already on the record saying we just don’t have the authority. I’d be surprised if many or any of those people change their minds,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters before Tuesday’s trial session began. “I think this thing is not going anywhere. I think our Democratic colleagues know that. And frankly, I think it is a terrible, terrible waste of time.”
