Votes needed for conviction. Attack on Capitol laid bare in trial
Going into Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial everyone thought they knew the evidence inside out already. Well, we didn’t know the half of it.
Democrat prosecutors caught everybody by surprise with a barrage of new information, mainly previously unseen footage from CCTV cameras inside the US Capitol.
The video was stunning. It showed Mike Pence and his family being rushed to safety as rioters, who wanted to hang him for treason, closed in. Mitt Romney almost walked into a mob. As did Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate. Nancy Pelosi’s staff could be seen ducking into a room. Minutes later rioters arrived and tried to break the door down.
There was audio too, of desperate police officers screaming for back up that didn’t come. “We’ve been flanked! We’ve lost the line!” they yelled, to no avail. New bodycam footage showed officers being pummelled with bats and flagpoles.
Democrat prosecutors argued not just that Trump was reckless in directing his followers to the Capitol on January 6. Instead, they sought to show that he cultivated a mob over a period of months, then deliberately aimed it at the seat of US democracy, with violent intent, to stop the certification of the election. In other words, he knew what was going to happen.
The prosecution case was that all senators — Democrat and Republican alike — had been at risk. Those same senators, who will decide Trump’s fate, sat silently, and apparently riveted. But the possibility of Trump being convicted remains remote. It requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate, meaning 17 of the 50 Republicans would have to join the 50 Democrats.
John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, said the prosecution was “very effective” and “pretty compelling”. He added: “I think they’ve done a good job of connecting the dots.”
But Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a strong supporter of Trump, said: “Nothing new here for me at the end of the day.”
Democrats know a conviction in the Senate is elusive, and their made-for-television presentation was also produced with the court of public opinion in mind. They want to shock the American public — particularly Republican voters — so much that, even after an acquittal, Trump cannot gather enough support to run for the presidency again.
Trump is aware of the Democrat strategy and is furious with his own lawyers, who made a lacklustre start to the trial.
Peter Navarro, a former adviser to Trump, said he had spoken to the ex-president by telephone and suggested he fire his lawyers, or risk losing support in the country. Navarro said: “If he doesn’t make a mid-course correction here, he’s going to lose this Super Bowl.”
Russia clashed with the United States and its Western allies yesterday over the nearly seven-year conflict in eastern Ukraine, and the UN warned that the current fragile ceasefire risks being reversed if peace negotiations become deadlocked. Russia called the Security Council meeting to mark today’s 6th anniversary of the signing of the Minsk peace plan brokered by France and Germany. It aimed to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists that flared in April 2014. The United States and European allies France, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Norway, Belgium and the United Kingdom blamed Russia for fuelling the conflict, which has killed more than 14,000 people, by providing financial and military support to the separatists.