Trump is US’s ‘worst nightmare come to life’, trial is told
:: Second impeachment trial opens
DONALD TRUMP was the Founding Fathers’ “worst nightmare come to life”, Democrat prosecutors said as the former president’s second impeachment trial opened yesterday.
Mr Trump incited a violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 that “desecrated” the seat of US democracy, and he must not be allowed to “get away with it” or similar events would become America’s future, they said.
The first day of the trial was taken up with legal argument over whether a former president could be tried for alleged crimes committed while in office. If convicted by the Senate, Mr Trump would be barred from running for president again.
The former president committed an “unforgivable betrayal of office” and was “singularly responsible” for a riot that “could have killed all of us”, the prosecutors argued yesterday.
“He issued a tweet five hours after the Capitol was sacked in which he sided with the bad guys,” said David Cicilline, one of the prosecutors.
The Democrat prosecutors – known as House managers – said the case against Mr Trump would be “devastating” and they would introduce new evidence.
Mr Raskin said: “Our case is based on cold, hard facts. It’s all about the facts.”
DONALD TRUMP was the Founding Fathers’ “worst nightmare come to life”, Democrat prosecutors said as the former president’s second impeachment trial opened yesterday.
Mr Trump incited a violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 that “desecrated” the seat of US democracy, and he must not be allowed to “get away with it” or similar events would become America’s future, they said.
The first day of the trial was taken up with legal argument over whether a former president could be tried for alleged crimes committed while in office. If convicted by the Senate, Mr Trump would be barred from running for president again.
The former president committed an “unforgivable betrayal of office” and was “singularly responsible” for a riot that “could have killed all of us,” the prosecutors argued yesterday.
“He issued a tweet five hours after the Capitol was sacked in which he sided with the bad guys,” said David Cicilline, one of the prosecutors.
“People died. It was a national tragedy, a disaster for America’s standing in the world. Things could have been much worse.”
Prosecutors showed a slick video giving a timeline of Mr Trump’s exhortations and tweets to followers, spliced with images of mob violence and chants of “Fight for Trump”.
The graphic 15-minute video showed supporters of Mr Trump, throwing down barriers and hitting police officers, and yelling expletives.
It showed the moment a police officer shot protester Ashli Babbitt as she tried to climb through a broken window.
In another scene, a rioter sifted the contents of a politician’s desk, saying, “There’s got to be something here we can use against the scumbags.”
Mr Trump has argued that he is now a private citizen so the trial is unconstitutional. No ex-president has ever been tried in the US Senate before.
But the Democrat prosecutors – known as House managers – said it would set a dangerous precedent not to try Mr Trump, allowing future presidents to do anything they wanted in their final weeks. They said there must be no “January exception” to impeachment in which presidents could commit offences in the days before they traditionally leave office on January 20 without accountability.
Jamie Raskin, lead House manager, said: “A January exception is an invitation to the president to take his best shot to hang on to the Oval Office at all costs and lock the door to the peaceful transfer of power.
“The January exception is an invitation to our founders’ worst nightmare.”
Democrats, who hold the balance of power in the Senate, won a vote last night allowing opening arguments to begin today.
The House managers said the case against Mr Trump would be “devastating” and they would introduce new evidence.
Mr Raskin said: “Our case is based on cold, hard facts. It’s all about the facts.”
Pointing at the tweet on a screen, Mr Raskin said: “That’s a high crime and misdemeanour. If that’s not an impeachable offence then what is?”
Bruce Castor, representing Mr Trump, denounced the rioters who breached the “citadel of our democracy”.
He said: “To have it attacked is repugnant. The loss of life is horrific. We mourn the loss of the Capitol police officer. Those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.” (© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2021)