The Senate will go ahead with the impeachment of Trump. What does that mean?

The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump began in the Senate this Tuesday . In the first session, the Upper House voted in favor of prosecuting the former president and defeated the argument of unconstitutionality alleged by his lawyers.

The day was marked by the initial video presented by the “prosecutors” of the House of Representatives and by a defense of Trump who hesitated and gave arguments that raised criticism among Republicans. One of them, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, changed the direction of his vote and joined the Democratic caucus. In total, 56 senators voted in favor and 44 against.

The video about the assault on the Capitol

During the 13 minutes of video that began the presentation of arguments by the Democrats, there was silence in the parliamentary seat. On the screens images of Trump’s speech were shown to his followers before they entered the legislative branch interspersed with other of the violent moments that were lived inside him.

The The video was overwhelming because it collected shocking images of that day and that many of those present lived in the first person. Before giving way to Trump’s attorneys, Jamie Raskin, the leader of the Lower House prosecutors, gave a very personal speech on how he and his family suffered the events of January 6.

The arguments of the House of Representatives

Democratic House attorneys argued that trying Trump is appropriate under the Constitution since the Lower House He accused him while he was still in office as president . They argued that, as the Senate has the exclusive power to judge all impeachments , so must with this.

Representative Raskin also argued that blocking the trial would involve creating what he called a new “exception of January ” in which“ corrupt presidents will have a few weeks (before leaving the White House) to do whatever they want ”because they know they will go unpunished.

“Your argument is that if you commit a crime that can be challenged in the last weeks in office, you do so with constitutional impunity , he gets away with it, “said the Democrat.

The arguments of the lawyers Trump

Bruce Castor, Trump’s first lawyer to speak, was more than 45 minutes rambling and giving incoherent arguments . At one point he seemed to admit that both he and his team had been surprised by Raskin’s presentation and that they had modified his speech after listening to it.

“I’ll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do because we thought that the presentation of the Chamber’s prosecutors was well done, “he said to the end of his opening speech.

Castor spared no compliments towards the senators in an apparent attempt to get them on his side. But, with at least one of them, Republican Bill Cassady got exactly the opposite effect . Cassady changed her mind about the first vote on the issue and joined her fellow Democrats.

“It was disorganized, random, they talked about many things but did not speak of the issue at hand, ”Cassidy told CNN. “The House prosecutors made a compelling case and the President’s team did not,” he added.

The Future of impeachment to Trump

This Tuesday’s session in the Senate was aimed at legitimizing or not the impeachment. Democrats got their job done and impeachment will be held.

Starting this Wednesday, both the prosecution and the defense have 16 hours to express their arguments , which would make the trial ran until the weekend. Once these presentations are made, senators have up to four hours to ask questions .

The Senate must also debate and vote on whether to bring witnesses to trial. Raskin and other prosecutors want to hear outside statements but Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi prefer a short trial . If this last position wins, this weekend we will know if Trump is acquitted or convicted.

Everything indicates that The ex-president will also come out of this political trial since, to convict him, the Democrats would need the vote of 17 Republicans and, so far, only six have voted in favor of continuing the proceedings against Trump.