Republicans and Democrats suspended proceedings within the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump to award the Congressional trophy to Capitol policeman Eugene Goodman for bravery during the January 6th mob attack on the Congress. In the weeks after the attack on January the sixth, the planet learned about the incredible bravery of Officer Goodman thereon fateful day,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. we saw the new video, a powerful video showing calmness struggling, his courage within the line of duty, his foresight within the midst of chaos, and his willingness to form himself a target of the mob’s rage so that others might reach safety, Schumer said.
If not for the fast thinking and bravado of Officer Eugene Goodman, especially, people during this chamber might not have escaped harm that day, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said. Since the November election, the Georgia secretary of state, the vice-chairman, and other public officials withstood enormous pressure to not uphold the lawful election of President Biden and therefore the rule of law Bennet said. What would have happened if these officials had bowed to the force President Trump exerted or the mob that attacked the Capitol? Bennet asked.
House manager Joaquin Castro responded, saying the events of Epiphany were “a combination of things that only Donald Trump could have done. And for us to think otherwise, is to think that somehow a rabbit came out of the hat and a mob just showed over here on their own, all by themselves,” Castor said. House manager says ‘Brandenburg’ case doesn’t apply Brandenburg was a case a few bunches of Klansmen who get assembled during a field and that they weren’t near anybody such they might actually do violent damage to people but they said some pretty repulsive racist things, Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead Democratic House impeachment manager.
They think we are making a criminal case here, the previous president isn’t getting to spend one hour, one minute in jail, Raskin said.
This is about protecting our republic and articulating and defining the standards of presidential conduct, he said. Donald Trump’s lawyer says House managers are counting on evidence unfortunately, we aren’t getting to know the solution to the facts during this proceeding because the House did nothing to research what went on, Trump counsel Michael van der Veen said. It was a report from a reporter from a lover of someone who had some hearsay they heard the night before at a bar somewhere, he said.
I mean that’s really the type of evidence that the House has brought before us. Senator Ted Cruz questioned whether Trump’s remarks met the legal code standard for incitement
Out of their 16 hours, the House managers devoted all of the quarter-hours to articulating a newly created legal standard for incitement, Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas asked.
One, was violence foreseeable? Two, did he encourage violence? Three, did he do so willfully? Cruz asked. Is this new standard derived from the criminal code or any Supreme Court case? Cruz asked. Trump’s defense counsel outlined the US legal code standard for incitement found within the 1969 Brandenburg ruling by the US Supreme Court which needs specific words urging people to commit violence.
The speech has got to be explicitly or implicitly encouraging the utilization of violence. In other words, it’s to be within the words itself, which is clearly not within the president’s words, Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen said. Trump’s lawyer accuses House managers of ‘doctoring’ evidence Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael van der Veen accused lead House manager Representative Jamie Raskin and his team of doctoring evidence within the impeachment trial. There was nothing fun here, Mr. Raskin. We aren’t having fun here. this is often about the foremost miserable experience I’ve had down here in Washington, DC, said van der Veen, a private injury lawyer from Philadelphia.
There’s nothing fun about it. And in Philadelphia, where I come from, once you get caught doctoring the evidence, your case is over. Senator Warren highlights false equivalency in Trump’s defense’s arguments defense’s presentation highlighted the very fact that Democratic members of Congress, raised objections to the counting of electoral votes in past joint sessions of Congress, Warren said. To your knowledge, were any of these Democratic objections raised after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes?
“And after the president’s personal lawyer asked senators to form these objections, specifically to delay certification? Dem Senator asks about the import of Trump’s big lie
Senator Alex Padilla asked about Trump’s big lie about the election, How did this plot to unconstitutionally keep President Trump in power cause the radicalization of numerous of President Trump’s followers, and therefore the resulting attack on the Capitol? Democratic manager JoaquinJoaquin Castro answered Donald Trump spent months inciting his base to believe that their election was stolen.
It wasn’t a one-off comment. it had been over and over and once again with a purpose,” Castro said. Klobuchar asks what message failure to convict would send
Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, asked, “If we don’t convict President Trump what message will we be sending to future presidents and congresses?The extremists who attacked the Capitol at the president’s provocation are going to be emboldened. All our intelligence agencies have confirmed this,” said Stacey Plaskett, one among the Democratic prosecutors. Senators are asking questions of Trump’s counsel and House managers
Senators are asking questions, through the Senate leader, of former President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers and House managers prosecuting the impeachment case against him for “incitement of insurrection Among the questions from senators thus far
Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, Republicans, asked, Exactly when did President Trump learn of the breach of the Capitol? What specific action did he fancy bring the rioting to an end? And when did he take them? Please be as specific as possible.”Trump’s defense counsel offered no specific information instead claiming House managers had did not build a sufficient evidentiary record. Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, asked, “Is it true or false that within the months leading up to Epiphany, dozens of courts, including state and federal courts in Georgia, rejected Prescient Trump’s campaign’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden?
Democrat Representative Jamie Raskin Gave A Five-Minute Response:
The president went from this traditional combat, which was fine, to intimidating and bullying – bullying state election officials and state legislators. then finally as Representative Cheney said, ‘summoning a mob, assembling a mob, then lighting the match’.Analyst Most important impeachment trial in US history this impeachment trial is that the most important within the history of us because it’s directly reflective of the Constitution’s intent for impeachments, the state magazine’s John Nichols told Al Jazeera.
I say that, not casually, but because this goes to the guts of the matter. This goes to precisely why the impeachment power exists, Nichols said. It exists to protect against abuses of office, particularly by a defeated president trying to stay in office, things of this nature. Dem Unavoidable conclusion Trump knew Pence’s life was in peril
Democratic senators are that specialize in former President Donald Trump’s state of mind when he issued a tweet during the Capitol riot on Epiphany targeting vice-chairman Mike Pence. How could the president of us, watching what was happening, knowing that his vice-chairman was within the chamber, notified that he’d been removed by United States Secret Service, not know that his life was in danger? How could you miss that?” said Senator Chris Coons, a DemocratMy family, just watching the riot unfolding on CNN or whatever, were out of their minds with worry Coons said. How could the president of us not know that there was an angry mob assaulting the Capitol?
It is his job to understand about security and bluntly, he had just spoken to the mob that then stormed the Capitol Coons said. Trump’s defense team closes its arguments, the trial will move to senators’ question former President Donald Trump’s defense team has concluded its opening arguments within the Senate impeachment trial after just quite two and a half hours of argument. The Senate will now move to the subsequent phase of the trial during which senators ask questions of the House prosecutors of the case and Trump’s defense lawyers. Senators are permitted to submit questions in writing for either the defense or the prosecution or both which are then read aloud by the leader, Senator Patrick Leahy.Defense: Epiphany attack on US Capitol was pre-planned, not triggered by Trump speech
Trump lawyer Bruce Castor said evidence that the Epiphany attack on the Capitol was pre-planned, as many people assembled at the Capitol even before Trump began his remarks.
Law enforcement agencies had warnings that folks attending the rally intended to assault the Congress, consistent with media reports. The president didn’t cause the riots, either explicitly or implicitly encourage the utilization of violence or lawless action but actually involved the peaceful exercise of each American’s First Amendment rights to peacefully assemble and petition their government of redress for grievances, Castor said. This was a pre-planned assault, make no mistake, which may be a critical fact, Castor said.
Trump lawyer says Trump’s words were twisted by House Democrats
Former President Donald Trump’s instructions to protestors at his January rally were to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard, his defense team argued. The goal, Nichols said, is to prop up GOP senators to confirm that they don’t break from President Trump and admittedly aimed toward the Republican base out across the country.
Nichols argues that if Trump’s lawyers achieve keeping Republican senators on the side of acquitting the previous president that becomes a factor because it could prod “both the impeachment managers and therefore the defense lawyers toward moving this trial toward a conclusion. Key Senate Republican hospitable censuring Trump
Senator John Thune, the amount two Republican within the Senate, said that he could support a censure resolution against Donald Trump if he’s acquitted within the impeachment trial needless to say. Thune told reporters Thursday that there are a few of [censure] resolutions out there that I feel could attract some support, consistent with Capitol Hill news outlet. One resolution has already been drafted by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine. When asked if he would support a censure resolution, Thune responded yeah.
A censure is actually a proper statement of disapproval, something many Democrats have argued isn’t nearly a harsh enough punishment. Trump’s defense drawing a ‘distorted and false argument Democratic senator says democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said that the previous president’s defense team’s arguments were intended to divert attention from Trump’s actions. They are attempting to draw a dangerous and distorted equivalence,” Blumenthal told reporters at the Senate during a brief break in proceedings.
It is plainly a distraction from Donald Trump inviting then inciting the mob then failing his oath of office to guard the Capitol and everybody in it he said. Trump’s legal team painting impeachment as a partisan issue’s words Donald Trump’s lawyers are using are interesting, said Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher, who acknowledged that they’re setting impeachment up “as a partisan issue.
They’ve used ‘hypocrisy’ tons, they’ve used ‘punish’, they’ve used ‘hatred’, they’ve used hate’, Fisher said. They’re trying to color this considerably as a partisan issue; it’s the Democrats that are attacking Donald Trump because they are doing not like him. Lawyers defending former President Donald replayed a video of his Epiphany speech to a rally of his supporters showing that he used the words fight or fighter or fighting” 20 times. These are the metaphorical and rhetorical uses of the word ‘fight’, lawyer Michael van der Veen said.
“We all know that,” he said.
House Democratic prosecutors specialize in only two of the 20 times Trump used the word in his speech is hypocrisy, he said, again showing video clips of Democratic politicians using equivalent phrases. Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael van der Veen argued that the previous president’s speech at his Stop the Steal” rally on Epiphany was protected by the primary Amendment to the US Constitution, which protects free speech.
“There is a whole body of law Supreme Court landmark cases supporting the conclusion that Mr. Trump actually has enhanced free speech rights because he’s an official van der Veen told the Senate. There is not any doubt Mr. Trump engaged in constitutionally protected political speech that the House has improperly characterized as incitement of insurrection, van der Veen said. Lawyers defending former President Donald Trump against an impeachment charge of incitement of insurrection played a 10-minute video of Democratic politicians repeatedly using the word “fight” in speeches, rallies, interviews, and political ads.
The evidence was offered to bolster Trump’s claim that the language he used at the Epiphany rally was normal political rhetoric. During his opening argument in defense of Donald Trump, lawyer Michael van der Veen declared that it wasn’t just pro-Trump extremists that stormed the Capitol last month, an assertion that has been widely debunked.
It is clear that extremists of varied different stripes and political persuasions pre-planned and premeditated an attack on the Capitol, van der Veen said. One of the primary people arrested was a pacesetter of Antifa. Van der Veen was ostensible of John Sullivan, a left-wing activist who has denied any affiliation with Antifa and who said he was at the Capitol to document the protest. Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking operation, says there’s no evidence that Sullivan was involved in any violence or any premeditated incitement.
Furthermore, Politifact’s deeper research reveals that there’s no proof Antifa stormed the Capitol. It seems there’s significant reason to doubt evidence that house managers have put before us, Trump defense lawyer David Schoen told senators sitting as jurors within the case. We have reason to believe that the House managers created false representations of tweets and therefore the lack of a due process of law means there was no opportunity to review or verify the accuracy, Schoen said.
They manipulated video, time-shifting clips, and made Michael van der Veen, one among the lawyers representing former President Donald Trump within the Senate trial, said the language cited by Democrats as incitement was instead typical political language. Consider the language that the House impeachment article alleges to constitute incitement, Castor said. If you don’t fight like mad, you’re not getting to have a rustic anymore Trump had said in his rally speech on Epiphany. This is an ordinary political language that’s virtually indistinguishable from the language that has to be employed by people across the political spectrum for many years, Castor said.
Trump’s defense team played for senators a video montage of Democratic politicians using similar language in speeches and rallies. Michael van der Veen, a lawyer representing former President Donald Trump in his Senate trial, said Democrats were pursuing the impeachment for political motives. The article of impeachment now before the Senate is an unjust and blatantly unconstitutional act of political vengeance,” Castor said.
This appalling abuse of the Constitution only further divides our nation once we should be trying to return together around shared priorities, Castor said. Donald Trump’s legal team has taken the ground within the United States Senate on Thursday as they start the formal defense of the previous president against the House of Representatives impeachment charge of incitement of insurrection for the Epiphany attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
After two days of what even Republicans said were powerful arguments made by House Democratic impeachment managers, Trump’s legal team hinted at their strategy to defend the previous president. They haven’t in any way tied [the riot] to Trump,” lawyer David Schoen, who will argue on behalf of Trump, told reporters after the Democrats concluded their arguments on Thursday.
Schoen and Bruce Castor, who was criticized for a meandering performance on February 9 at the trial, will argue that Trump wasn’t afforded due process when the House passed its article of impeachment last month. They are also expected to aim to show the tables on Democrats, arguing that Trump’s actions leading up to the riot were fiery politics and not an “incitement of insurrection.
The lawyers promise to point out the video of Democrats making similar incendiary political comments as Trump with a fight like a hell being one quote mentioned – and argue that the previous president said and did nothing that Democrats themselves had not done before. President Joe Biden, who has said little or no about the impeachment trial in an attempt to specialize in the pandemic and other pressing issues, said on Friday morning that he’s curious to ascertain whether Senate Republicans vote to convict former President Donald Trump.
I’m just anxious to ascertain what my Republican friends do if they get up,” Biden told reporters outside the White House, adding that he has no plans to talk to any Senate Republicans before the vote.
