Impeachment video may have swayed some: Biden

President Joe Biden said yesterday he had watched coverage of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and thought “some minds may have been changed” after prosecutors showed gripping and graphic video of the January 6 siege of the US Capitol.

Biden told reporters in the Oval Office that while he did not view any of the Senate trial live, he had seen the morning news.

“I think the Senate has a very important job to complete,” the president said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said later that “the footage was just a reminder of how shocked and saddened” Biden was on the day rioters stormed the Capitol.

It was a notable shift in tone after the new president spent much of the week doing his best to avoid the issue.

And it came after House prosecutors aired never-before-seen footage that showed police being beaten by the rioters and presented a fuller picture of the precarious situation at the Capitol on the day when Congress was meeting to affirm Biden’s victory.

Biden had insisted previously that he would not watch the proceedings, and for much of this week, Psaki dodged questions about the trial.

She had declined to offer Biden’s opinion on whether the trial was constitutional or about the outcome because, as she said, the president is “not a pundit”.

While expanding on Biden’s views about the trial, she refused to weigh in on Trump’s culpability.

Pressed on whether Biden believes the Senate should convict Trump, an outcome that’s seen as unlikely, Psaki avoided answering directly.

She said the president “knows there’s a role for Congress to play and a role for him to play”.

It reflects the message Biden’s team has tried to drive home: the focus is on governing and not the historic events unfolding at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

German and Danish authorities said they have arrested three Syrian men on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, and later five more terrorismlinked arrests were announced in Denmark. A spokesman for federal prosecutors said a warrant was issued for the men on charges of preparing a serious act of violence. They’re alleged to have purchased several kilograms of chemicals that could be used to manufacture explosives.