Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have reached a deal for the format of impeachment trial for former President Trump that commences on February 9th, 2021. McConnell said that the new plan gives time for the Senators to hear arguments. The timeline in the deal would allow the impeachment trial to end as soon as next week. Also, under the deal Senators will debate if the trial is unconstitutional, and then hold a vote on that subject. Both sides will have 16 hours in two days to present their case. Additionally, the trial will temporarily stop from Friday to Sunday because a Trump lawyer requested to halt the trial during the Jewish holiday Sabbath. The deal also allows witnesses, though it is unclear if there will be any. Senators will have four hours to ask questions. As outlined in the deal, closing arguments will be two hours each. The house managers are arguing that Trump should be impeached because of his statement just hours before the capital riots “Fight like hell”. Impeachment Managers also argue that Trump had been inciting violence much before his now infamous January 6th speech because he had repeatedly said that the Election was stolen by the Democrats. Additionally, the Impeachment managers state that Trump had continued to encourage violence by tweeting Mike Pence was a coward for not objecting to the Electoral Results, something that is illegal in his position.
Our Take:
At the blog we think the Trump should be convicted because if he did not attack the integrity of the Electoral process then the rioters would not have come to the capital. We also think that it is unlikely that conviction will happen because the Democrats will need support of 17 Republican senators which will be a tall order to say the least.