Trial of Trump advances despite strong resistance from republican senators

Most republics in the US Senate voted Tuesday against developing charges against former President Donald Trump for inciting the rebellion, which relates to the January 6th attacks on the Capitol, signaling that he will likely have enough votes to ensure innocence.

The vote was 55-45 in favour of opening the trial, but only five republics joined the 50 democratic senators. Two-thirds of the senators' votes are needed to convict him, which means 17 republican senators will have to vote along with 50 democratic senators to convict former President Trump after the full trial expected to begin on 9 February.

A supporter of Mr. Trump, Senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul proposed the vote if the Senate should continue with the trial, calling it an anti-unconstitutional “-defeiting”.

Senator Paul argued that the Senate cannot hold a trial against a private citizen, whom Mr. Trump is now after his mandate ended last Wednesday when Democrat Joe Biden was inaugurated as the country's 46th president. In fact, the Senate has held trials for private citizens in the past.

Even before the vote, many Senate republics seemed to give up their support to convict Mr. Trump of inciting the uprising of the January 6th violent events in the Capitol. Hundreds of Mr. Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol in an effort to prevent the certificate of the November election outcome won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The 100 senators, 50 Democrats and 50 republics took the oath Tuesday as lawyers in the trial against Mr. Trump, though the opening of the trial has been postponed until February 9th.

Republican lawmakers hold the fate of Mr. Trump, even though the former White House president's four-year term ended on January 20th with the inauguration of Democrat Joe Biden.

Joe Biden, who has spent 36 years as senator and 8 years in the post of vice president in President Obama's administration, told CNN on Monday that he supports the development of the trial but does not think that a sufficient number of Republicans will vote against Mr. Trump to declare him guilty.

Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, a supporter of Mr. Trump who has advised the former president of future procedures, said he only has a handful of Republicans, and their number is falling, who will vote against him (Mr. Trump). ”

Numerous Republican senators have said Mr. Trump holds part of the responsibility for the violent attack on the Capitol that left five people dead, including a police officer whose death is being investigated as murder. At a January 6th rally near the White House, Mr. Trump continued to voice his baseless allegations of election manipulation that, according to him, denied him a second presidential mandate and urged his supporters to march towards the Capitol and “fought” to prevent him from posing the victory of the Democrat Joe Biden.

In the following weeks, authorities arrested dozens of protesters who attacked Capitol, viewed worldwide as the symbol of American democracy, damaged several Congress offices, and clashed with police. The actions of dozens of other protesters are still under investigation.

But some republican lawmakers, though often critical of Mr. Trump, questioned the development of a trial at the time he left office and suggested protesters are guilty of the violent attack.

“We will hear [legal arguments against Mr. Trump], but I still have a problem with the constitutionality of the trial, and the precedent he creates with the attempt to condemn a private citizen”, said Republican senator from Aeva, Joni Ernst.

He showed poor leadership, I think we all agree. But the protesters are the ones who entered the Capitol. They did so knowingly. So they take responsibility for this”, she added.

Republican Senator from the state of Wisconsin, Ron Johnson asked: Why are we doing this? I can't think of something more divisive and not healing than a trial for condemning a president already removed from office. It's just revenge. This is ridiculous. ”

On Sunday, Republican Senator from Florida Marco Rubio said on the <x0 show. Fox News Sunday” that “we're just going back to what we've been through in the last five years, bringing him to trial. This will be a bad move for the country. ”

This is not a criminal trial. This is a political process and will foster divisions that have paralyzed the country”, the republican lawmaker added.

The majority leader in the Senate, Democrat Chuck Schumer, dismissed the republican arguments that Mr. Trump should have escaped the trial because his term as president is over.

The “seems to have some hope that the Republicans could challenge the charges against the former president on the basis of the process, instead of dealing with his terrible behaviour”, Senator Schumer said. “Allow me to be perfectly clear: This will not be acceptable. ”

Two major newspapers, The Washington Post and The New York Times, said their polls showed widespread opposition among republican senators to condemn Mr. Trump. The Washington Post said 29 of the 50 republican senators opposed the former president's sentence, while the New York Times said 27 of them oppose the move.

With 67 votes needed to convict him, this apparently leaves Mr. Trump's fate in the hands of a small number of republican senators unless more evidence arises linking him to attacking the Capitol, and which would force them to reconsider their decision on the matter.

Some Republicans, however, remain open to the possibility of voting in support of the sentence, including Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell and Utah state senator Mitt Romney, who has been the Republicans' candidate for president in the 2012 elections in which he lost, and the only republic that voted to convict Mr. Trump in the first trial in the Senate.

Senator Romney, while not pledging to vote to plead guilty, told CNN on Sunday that “I believe the push for sedition is a punishable act. If not, then what is it?”

He said he believes Mr. Trump was “collaborative in an unprecedented attack on our democracy”.

Whatever happens in the upcoming trial, Mr. Trump will continue to be the only president in the 245-year history of the United States to which charges are filed twice, and the first president to face a trial in the Senate after leaving office.

The House of Representatives pressed charges against him in 2019 for efforts to get help from Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden before the November elections. The Senate cleared him of the prosecution last February.

Lawmaker Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the democratic lawmakers who will play the prosecutor's role in the trial against Mr. Trump in the Senate, told CNN network that they would be using strong arguments “to bring to light “the big lie against Mr. Trump had lost the election due to manipulation.

It called the instigation of the uprising by Mr. Trump “an extraordinary, hateful crime. The American public saw what happened. ”

This was a frightening moment ... prompted by the president,” she said. “This cannot be left unanswered. ”

The House of Representatives officially handed the charges against Mr. Trump for “inciting the uprising” in the Senate on Monday evening.

Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives voted with 232 pro and 197 against raising charges against Mr. Trump. Ten republican lawmakers joined all Democrats of the House of Representatives in voting for the prosecution against former President Trump. / VOA