the united states senate has made history today prosecuting a past president the
first order of business was voting 56 to 44 that putting donald trump on trial
again is constitutional our congressional correspondent lisa desjardins begins our coverage
for the second time in just over a year the senate convened as a courtroom the senate will convene
as a court of impeachment in front of the diocese
newly installed tables separated the defense from the prosecution
and senators already sworn in as jurors gathered for the second impeachment trial of donald trump
the former president is charged with inciting the deadly insurrection that more than a month later
still has the capitol building on edge surrounded by razor wire and heightened security
democrats began dramatically with a video showing the attack on the capitol and president trump's
actions and words that day after this we're going to walk down and i'll be there with you
we're going to walk down we're going to walk down to the capitol
the team of house democrats acting as impeachment managers were inside the
capitol themselves during the attack and stressed the danger they saw what you experienced that day
what we experienced that day what our country experienced that day
is the framer's worst nightmare come to life lead impeachment manager representative jamie raskin
was emotional speaking of burying his son one day previously and then on january 6 fearing for the
lives of his daughter and son-in-law who were at the capitol with him this cannot be the future of
america we cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government
he and other democrats pointed to the constitution itself as evidence that this trial should go ahead
because it allows for officials to lose the right to run for office again because the
text of the constitution makes clear there is no january exception to the impeachment power
that presidents can't commit grave offenses in their final days and escape any congressional
response if mr trump is convicted senators could bar him from holding federal office in the future
this as dozens of constitutional and other lawyers including conservative charles cooper
who published an op-ed agree that the process is constitutional democrats also pointed to
historical precedent the 1876 trial of secretary of war william belknap who resigned before his
trial when his case reached the senate this body belknap made the exact same argument that
president trump is making today that you all lack jurisdiction any power to try him because
he's a former official but the senate then voted that it had the right to go ahead anyway the
belknap case is clear precedent that the senate must proceed with this trial the trump team
started with a different approach one thing i have discovered whether it be democrats or republicans
united states senators are patriots first
patriots first they love their country they love their families they love the states that they
represent pennsylvania attorney bruce castor began by extolling the senate and senators themselves
even praising his legal opponents we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought
that the house manager's presentation was well done he and fellow trump lawyer david shone argued
that the impeachment trial is an unnecessary and rushed partisan exercise showing their own video
of democrats calling for impeachment years ago i rise today mr speaker to call for the impeachment
of the president of the united states of america i continue to say mpgm
mpg45 they argue the trial is divisive and unconstitutional the section i read
judgment in other words the bad thing that can happen the judgment in cases of impeachment i.e
what we are doing shall not extend further than removal from office what is so hard about that
what are those which of those words are unclear
president trump no longer is in office my overriding emotion is frankly wanting to cry
for what i believe these proceedings will do to our great so long enduring sacred constitution
and to the american people on both sides of the great divide that now characterizes our nation
through it all staff and senators watched taking in the constitutional arguments that were more
like opening arguments those officially are set to begin tomorrow and lisa joins me now along with
our yamiche alcindor hello to both of you you were both watching this very closely lisa we could see
only the speaker during today's proceedings but you were in and out of the senate chamber tell us
the bigger picture there how were senators reacting what else was going on
senators certainly came ready to take notes ready to be informed about the situation but i will tell
you that they definitely seem to be paying much more close attention to the democrats case
than to the republicans case i saw many senators including some swing senators taking copious notes
during the democrats presentation and of course it's very significant that when that video of the
riot was played senators had different reactions some didn't react at all some looked down and
didn't watch others were emotional and turned away because of the emotion that they were feeling and
watching in the midst of all of it senator mitch mcconnell the republican leader whose
own words were put in that video was reactionless so it was a fascinating spectrum of reactions but
when republicans began their case when the trump team began their case i saw only one or two
senators taking notes and it was clear difference in sort of the way the gravity that senators took
those two sides at least today and we saw that in the vote as an additional republican
senator joined democrats senator bill cassidy of louisiana to vote to keep this trial going
and lisa that's a reminder that at the last impeachment trial
for president former president trump it the vote came down almost entirely finally along
partisan lines only one senator joined the democrats what do you what is your sense from
reading the senators this time in terms of how they may be receiving the arguments i've been able
to speak to many senators they were actually remarkably chatty after this session today
just in the past few minutes and something really stands out to me i have never heard members of
one party criticize an attorney representing their party the way that i've heard republican senators
in the last half hour talk about bruce castor including senator lindsey graham one of trump's
biggest allies saying i thought i would figure out where he was going but in the end i don't
know where he was going senator lisa murkowski told me it was a missed opportunity senator susan
collins had this quote she said i was perplexed by that first lawyer who seemed to not make any
arguments at all general agreement that the second attorney for president trump mr shone
did a better job but a missed opportunity is how republicans look at that on the other hand
they also think i hear from republicans and democrats that the democratic team did better
than the team we saw last year that it was a more senatorial tone less angry less political
and more didactic and legal something that senators seem to be paying closer attention to
interesting that they said that in that 44 of them uh all but all but six voted uh that it still was
not constitutional to go ahead with the trial but yamiche i know you'd been in touch with the trump
defense team before today what struck you about the arguments they made
well this was a trump defense that was really at times meandering at times really struggling to get
to their point and at times frankly confusing and contradicting the president the former
president trump's own words that said they did eventually get to the point which was that they
feel like democrats are doing this for political theater and that really this is about democrats
wanting to make sure that president trump can't be their political opponent in future elections now
to bruce castor who was that first attorney that lisa and others are reporting is really getting
bad um bad remarks from from both democrats and republicans he made this argument that president
trump um was really a target of a political motivated attack here and he said something
though that was really interesting which is that he said the american people spoke and that they
made sure to vote president trump out of office that is a concession that president trump himself
has never made um it's also something interesting that he said was in in his long 50 minute speech
he said that um he believes that no one on the trump defense will be trying to at all defend the
actions on january 6. now let's keep that in mind as i read this tweet by president trump on january
6 he said these are the things and events that happen when a sacred landstride election victory
is unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots so that's president trump
defending the attack on january 6th that siege on the capitol but his attorneys now are saying
they're not going to do that getting to david shawn who is the person who was seen as more
tactical more precise more focused he really talked about though that democrats were showing
quote unquote movies making the case that they were trying to be too emotional in their arguments
um but of course democrats were showing real video from the attack on january 6 trying to
remind lawmakers just all of what happened um something else that brutus catcher said
that something else that david jones said that was really interesting is that democrats
were too slow to send the impeachment articles to the senate but also they rushed the impeachment
of this they're also of course those four lawyers that are going to make up the team for the trump
um legal defense we're going to see each of them today we saw two of them so these are all some
some of the interesting things that stuck out to me contradictory arguments but still
arguments that landed their punches when they finally got to the point
all right yamiche alcindor and lisa desjardins watching today
and you'll be watching again for the rest of the week thank you both