The impeachment trial of Donald Trump is heading towards an end and it is expected that between today and tomorrow the Senate will deliver its verdict after the accusing party and the defense concluded their expositions with conflicting versions about the responsibility of the former president in the assault of his supporters of Congress.
The fifth day of the session will resume at 12 am Argentina with the final arguments of the “managers”, as the Democratic congressmen who act as a kind of prosecutors are known, and the lawyers of the magnate, who will have two hours each for his last words.
If either party decides to call witnesses, before the final presentations there will be a debate and a preliminary vote to see if this is allowed, which would extend the end of the impeachment one more day.
Although the impeachment trial concludes today or tomorrow, one certainty is that it will be the shortest in the history of the United States: the first against Trump, the only president to be tried twice, lasted 21 days; the one that had Bill Clinton as accused lasted 37 days; and the one against Andrew Johnson lasted 83 days.
It is that the only thing that Democrats and Republicans agree on is the desire that the process be as quick as possible: the ruling party so that the Senate can focus its time on approving the aid to mitigate the economic effects of the coronavirus and the opposition to be able to turn the page.
Democrats must convince 17 Republican senators that Trump is guilty of the charge of “incitement to insurrection” if they are to muster the necessary majority to convict him, something that at the moment seems unlikely.
The latest revelation surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol that left five dead is that Trump rejected a request by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy to order his supporters to call off the assault, according to sources from the House of Representatives. party to the CNN chain.
“Well, Kevin, I think these people are more upset than you are about the elections,” Trump responded, according to the Republican congressmen present, despite McCarthy indicating that his followers were even entering through the windows.
Defense attorneys concluded their arguments in just three hours yesterday, accusing the Democrats of persecuting the former president.
Bruce Castor, one of the lawyers, maintained that the objective of the indictment is “to annul the 75 million voters of Trump and to penalize political points of view.”
Michael van der Veen, also a member of the legal team, called the indictment unconstitutional and an “act of political revenge.”
Previously, in their time to present their arguments, Democratic lawmakers showed recordings, many of which had never been seen before, which included the moment when the mob stormed the building, anguished lawmakers receiving help from security guards, protesters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the police and the audio of Capitol police officers calling for support.
At the White House, President Joe Biden said Thursday that some Republican lawmakers “may have changed their minds” about the responsibility of their predecessor after watching those videos.
“I am anxious to see what my Republican friends will do, to see if they get up,” he said yesterday, in another brief comment on what is happening in Congress.
