-The Senate has a solemn responsibility
to try and hold Donald Trump accountable
for the most serious charges ever,
ever levied against a president.
-Like every one of you,
I was evacuated as this violent mob stormed the Capitol's gates.
-If that's not an impeachable offense,
then there is no such thing.
-I believe the managers will present a very strong case.
The evidence will be powerful.
-What you're about to hear has not been made public before.
-I particularly urge my Republican colleagues
to pay very real attention to the evidence here.
-President Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead.
-It's Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill.
Almost three weeks after he left office,
Donald J Trump's second
impeachment trial is about to begin.
-We are starting the trial today.
We are back one year plus four days to the moment
and about to be starting impeachment trial number two.
I think the one big question that remains unresolved
at this point is what's gonna happen with witnesses?
At this point, no one is expecting there
to be any witnesses in this trial.
But house managers did say they want to call
all the way up to the president.
Now, the problem is that the Senate would have
to actually back any sort of a summons
to bring anybody in to testify.
That does not seem likely, but it is still possible.
-The House impeachment managers,
led by Representative Jamie Raskin,
make their way to the Senate floor.
The Democrats open their presentation with a powerful,
13-minute video outlining the events of January 6th.
-We will stop the steal. -Stop the steal!
-We don't know what's out there, and we are listening to Trump --
your boss. -As senators look on,
impeachment managers show footage of the Capitol
and the very chamber they're sitting in overrun
by marauding Trump supporters.
-Senators, the president was impeached
by the US House of Representatives
on January 13th for doing that.
You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor
is under our Constitution.
That's a high crime and misdemeanor.
-What we experienced that day, what our country experienced
that day is the Framers' worst nightmare come to life.
Presidents can't inflame insurrection
in their final weeks
and then walk away like nothing happened.
-Ending on a personal story, Raskin breaks down
as he talks about his daughter,
who was with him in the Capitol on the day of the attack.
-I told her how sorry I was,
and I promised her that it would not be like this again
the next time she came back to the Capitol with me.
And you know what she said?
She said, "Dad, I don't want to come back to the Capitol."
Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw
and I heard on that day,
and since then, that one hit me the hardest.
Senators, this cannot be our future.
This cannot be the future of America.
We cannot have presidents inciting
and mobilizing mob violence
against our government and our institutions
because they refuse to accept the will of the people
under the Constitution of the United States.
-Democrats' opening arguments are over,
and it's the defense's turn.
One of Trump's lawyers, Bruce Castor, addresses the Senate.
-My name is Bruce Castor. I am the lead prosecutor,
lead counsel for the 45th president of the United States.
-He got up, and he gave this kind of sprawling,
meandering speech.
-We changed what we were going to do on account that we thought
that the House managers' presentation was well-done.
-Every last Republican criticized him.
-We still know what records are, right?
On the thing you put the needle down on, and you play it.
-And he just had Republicans come out,
and they were scratching their heads.
-I worked in this building 40 years ago.
I got lost then, and I still do.
-At home in Florida,
the former president is watching the trial on cable news.
-Donald Trump is at Mar-a-Lago.
It's his private club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
He watched very closely the opening day
of the impeachment trial, and our reporting shows
that he was quite displeased by his lawyers' performances.
-Another lawyer, David Schoen, picks things up.
His argument holds that the House investigated too quickly
but also that the impeachment becomes moot
once the president leaves office.
-It is a clear denial of due process and fair trial rights
for private citizen Trump to face an impeachment trial.
The impeachment article should be treated as a nullity
and dismissed based on the total lack
of due process in the House.
-Senators vote to continue with the trial,
saying it is constitutional, picking up one extra Republican
from a similar vote two weeks earlier.
-As an impartial juror,
I'm gonna vote for the side that did the good job.
-So, it's day two of the trial now.
That means it is day one of seeing the full case
that the House managers are gonna put on.
-The evidence will show you that ex-President Trump
was no innocent bystander.
-He truly made his base believe that the only way he could lose
was if the election was rigged.
-This was the "save the date" sent out 18 days
before the event, on January 6th.
-The managers spend the early afternoon
connecting Trump to the riot.
-He had every reason to know that they were armed,
that they were violent,
and that they would actually fight.
-Then Raskin delivers a warning. -I do want to alert everyone
that there is some very graphic, violent footage coming,
just so people are aware.
-Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands
presents previously unseen videos,
showing rioters inside the Capitol,
almost crossing paths with senators trying to escape.
-Officer Goodman passes Senator Mitt Romney
and directs him to turn around in order to get to safety.
-You can walk around this building,
and you can tell that there's cameras everywhere,
but I don't think any of us have actually ever sat back
and thought, "Okay, there's this angle.
There's this angle."
-You can see Vice President Pence and his family
quickly moved down the stairs.
-The trial breaks for dinner,
and it's clear that the evidence presented --
and how close senators themselves came to danger --
had an effect. -I'm angry.
I'm disturbed. I'm sad.
I wasn't fully aware of everything else
that was happening in the building
and just the total awareness of that, the enormity of this,
the threat not just to us as people, as lawmakers,
but the threat to the institution
and what Congress represents.
-Senators returned to the chamber as Democrats
wrap up their presentation.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah objects
to the House Democrats' use of a news story,
saying he was on the phone with President Trump.
It's a heated argument at the end of an emotional day.
-Statements were attributed to me moments ago
by the House impeachment managers.
I'm the witness. I'm the only witness.
Those statements are not true, and I ask that you strike them.
-Hear, hear!
-Okay, we're gonna withdraw it this evening
and without any prejudice to the ability to resubmit it,
if possible, and then we can debate it if we need it.
But this is much ado about nothing
because it's not critical in any way to our case.
-You're not the one being cited as a witness, sir.
-Senate stands adjourned.
-3, 2, 1, this is Joyce Koh at the White House.
3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.
Did you see the video yesterday during the impeachment trial,
and what was your reaction, Mr President?
-I watched some this morning.
I think the Senate has a very important job to complete,
and I think my guess is some minds may have been changed.
But I don't know.
[reporters asking questions] Thank you very much.
-We've got one more day of arguments from the managers,
and then the Trump team is gonna get its chance to respond.
And then we will see.
I am watching from home.
This impeachment is weird.
This impeachment is over something that happened
in the Capitol, that happened to them.
They are all both witnesses and jurors to these events.
-You know, I'm not afraid of Donald Trump
running again in four years.
I'm afraid he's gonna run again and lose,
because he can do this again.
-Injuries to the US Capitol police and the Metropolitan
Police Department include concussions,
irritated lungs, serious injuries
caused by repeated blows from bats, poles, and clubs.
-We humbly, humbly ask you to convict President Trump
for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of.
-Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,
but we have this saving consolation.
The more difficult the struggle,
the more glorious in the end will be our victory.
-We're not expecting Trump's team to take as long,
but they have to undo all of the emotionalness
that has been brought up to the surface
in all these senators who have been watching.
If the senators who have been watching
were feeling completely torn up about what they saw
and yet completely not comfortable with the idea
of convicting the president on it,
if they are looking for an excuse,
they're just gonna be listening for whatever words drop
out of the Trump lawyers' mouths that give them that answer.
They don't have as cohesive a GOP bloc
as they thought they did going in.
They have to keep together who they have.
-It's a bitterly cold day in Washington,
and Trump's lawyers start their arguments.
-We're expecting Trump's team to basically make the argument
that what happened on January 6th
was a terrible, awful, tragic thing,
but that it's not the president's fault.
It is striking how many Republicans who seem committed
to vote to acquit are also saying that they found
the House managers' case extremely compelling.
-Throughout the course of today, my colleagues
and I will explain in some detail
the simple fact that President Trump
did not incite the horrific, terrible riots of January 6th.
-And Mr Trump's speech
deserves full protection under the First Amendment.
This case unfortunately is about political hatred.
-The defense lawyers repeatedly claim the House managers
manipulated evidence and selectively edited quotes.
-This hatred has led the House managers to manipulate
and selectively edit Mr Trump's speech.
-They manipulated video, time-shifting clips,
and made it appear the president's words
were playing to a crowd.
-In total, they use less than 3 hours to argue
that Trump should be acquitted.
-So, we have a complete lack of evidence
for the article of impeachment presented by the House managers.
So, why are we here?
Politics.
Their goal is to eliminate a political opponent.
Members of the Senate,
this concludes the formal defense of the 45th president
of the United States to the impeachment article
filed by the House of Representatives.
-And the Senate quickly moves to questioning each side
on their arguments.
-Mr President, I send a question
to the desk directed at both sides.
-I send a question to the desk. -I send a question to the desk.
-I send a question to the desk. -Senator Sanders has a question.
-Are the prosecutors right when they claim that Trump
was telling a big lie,
or, in your judgment, did Trump actually win the election?
-The people had spoken, and it was time
for the peaceful transfer of power.
-In my judgment, it's irrelevant
to the question before this body.
-Senator Bill Cassidy raises a question
on when President Trump
knew of the danger to Vice President Pence.
-Does this show that President Trump
was tolerant of the intimidation of Vice President Pence?
-I dispute the facts that are laid out in that question.
-Abruptly, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
calls for an end to the session
and asks to award a Congressional Gold Medal
to Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman.
-Officer Goodman is in the chamber tonight.
Officer Goodman, thank you.
-And the trial ends, picking up early Saturday morning
with the expectation that it will conclude quickly.
-Closing arguments expected today in the Senate trial
of Donald Trump.
Welcome to this "Washington Post"
special report.
I'm Libby Casey.
-Thank you, Mr President. Good morning, senators.
-But lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin starts by asking
to call one witness, Republican Representative
Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington state.
-We would like the opportunity to subpoena Congresswoman
Herrera regarding her communications
with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
and to subpoena her contemporaneous notes
that she made regarding what President Trump
told Kevin McCarthy in the middle of the insurrection.
We would be prepared to proceed by Zoom deposition
of an hour or less.
-Not by Zoom.
None of these depositions should be done by Zoom.
We didn't do this hearing by Zoom!
These depositions should be done in person,
in my office, in "Phillydelphia."
That's where they should be done.
[laughter]
-So, the question we have before us
is whether it should be in order to consider debate
under the rules of impeachment any motion
to subpoena witnesses or documents.
The clerk will call the role.
-Mr Barrasso? Mr Blumenthal?
Mr Bennet?
Mr Blunt? Mr Booker?
Mr Boozman?
Sanders, Sasse, Schumer.
-The motion is agreed to by a vote of 55-45.
-The vote throws the day into chaos,
as senators figure out how to proceed.
-And, PK, what can you tell us about what kind of a surprise
this may have been to members of this Senate jury?
-Nobody -- this was a totally organic moment.
The Democrats went into the floor today
expecting to not even vote on witnesses,
to have a motion that would go straight to closing arguments.
-If you do nothing following this,
then what was that vote that we just watched this morning?
-And nobody knows what the next steps are in this process.
-Eventually, a deal to move on quickly is struck.
Herrera Beutler's statement is submitted for the record.
-Managers are prepared to enter into agreement.
I will now read the statement.
This is a statement Congresswoman Jaime
Herrera Beutler, February 12, 2021.
"That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said,
'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset
about the election than you are.
'" -Without objection,
the statement will be admitted into evidence.
-Then they move on to closing arguments.
-Though it is difficult to bear witness
and face the reality of what happened in these halls,
what happens if we don't confront these facts?
What happens if there is no accountability?
-And I believe that this body can rise to the occasion
once again today
by convicting President Trump, defending our republic.
-To believe, based on the evidence you have seen,
that Mr Trump actually wanted and indeed willfully incited
an armed insurrection
to overthrow the US government would be absurd.
With your vote, you can defend the Constitution.
You can protect due process.
And you can allow America's healing to begin.
I urge the Senate to acquit
and vindicate the Constitution of this great republic.
Thank you.
-The Senate is now ready to vote on the article of impeachment.
-Senators, how say you?
Is the respondent, Donald John Trump, guilty or not guilty?
A roll-call vote is required,
and the clerk will call the roll.
-Mr Brown? -Guilty.
-Mr Brown, guilty.
Mr Burr? Guilty.
-In just under a week, the second impeachment trial
of the former president reaches its expected conclusion.
-Donald John Trump,
former president of the United States,
is not guilty as charged in the article of impeachment.
-Trump is acquitted.
However, seven Republicans join Democrats
in supporting conviction,
bringing the final vote to 57 in favor to 43 against.
While falling short of the two-thirds majority needed,
it is the most bipartisan vote on conviction of a president
in US history.
-There's no question that President Trump is practically
and morally responsible
for provoking the events of the day.
But in this case, the question is moot
because former President Trump
is constitutionally not eligible for conviction.
-Oh, these cowardly senators who couldn't face up
to what the president did
and what was at stake for our country
are now gonna have a chance to give a little slap on the wrist?
We censure people for using stationery
for the wrong purpose.
We don't censure people for inciting insurrection
that kills people in the Capitol.