democrats are determined to hold the
former president accountable for the
violent siege
on the u.s capitol while republicans are
calling the trial absurd and
unconstitutional the stark divide
between the two sides is every bit as
obvious
among ordinary americans dw washington
bureau chief
enis paul has this report
it's been over two months since election
day
but trump seems to be as present as ever
in rural pennsylvania
and his upcoming impeachment trial is
finding little support here
paula grew up in piketown a small
village
on the outskirts of harrisburg he's
about america
we're not trump followers we want
somebody that represents
long time america and where we came from
america is at a crossroads and
pennsylvania
is a prime example for the divide
between rural
and urban on the one hand you have trump
supporters who still believe
that the election was stolen on the
other hand you have democrats
who want to hold donald trump
accountable for the storming of the
capital
on january 6. only 20 minutes away
in uptown harrisburg the political
landscape
changes from deep red to bright blue
a demographic phenomenon which can be
found all
across america i'll be happy to get rid
of all of them
trump and the supporters
why because they just you saw it they
did it at the capitol
you know i mean elijah was lost and for
what
i talked to two pennsylvanian state
senators
via zoom because of covet restrictions
is it really worth
taking the risk to deepen the divide of
the country even more with the
impeachment
there's a greater danger in not
prosecuting him
because by not doing it
we're more or less saying okay it's all
right that he did that
we can move on he committed a crime in
my view
and he needs to be held accountable for
that crime you know his supporters
the republicans have a different take
it's not going to do anything to heal
the nation i i i
you know obviously we watched joe biden
well and uh i
a great move he could do is to say you
know what
and and talk to his friends in the house
and send it say stop it it's it's too
symbolic it's meaningless he's out of
office
beckon in piketown paula does not feel
optimistic about her country's future
now
that trump is no longer president it
will be a big divide
it's scary actually it's very scary
because we're patriots
we're not going down easy and the next
generation
might be still living in a fractured
nation unless
the new president can bridge that divide
well let's bring in william bluecroft
he's part of our u.s election team here
at dw
uh william when proceedings start today
what will happen first of all
hi gerhard yes today is probably gonna
be mostly a formality the senate will be
debating
whether they have jurisdiction to hear
this trial at all that will likely pass
that will lead us to opening arguments
starting wednesday when
each side is going to have 16 or up to
16 hours to present their case
after that the impeachment managers
that's basically the prosecutors
democrats from the house
will have the option to call for
witnesses and then if that were to
happen there would be a vote
if the senators want to hear witnesses
uh and things will go on from there
going into next week
well in your view william how likely is
it that this impeachment trial will come
to a conviction
of donald trump
well to convict democrats are going to
need their entire party the 50 democrats
in the senate plus 17 republicans to
join them
that's looking unlikely democrats are
hoping
to recreate that feeling of anger of
fear
of of just shock that many people on
both sides of the aisle felt
on january 6 and the days immediately
thereafter to try to get republicans to
confront
the evidence they're going to present of
trump's culpability uh
in that mob on january 6 but it's
unlikely given the partisan divide in
the senate
and in washington in general that
they're really going to get 17 senators
maybe a few republican senators
but 17 is is looking unlikely
william it has been said that this
procedure touches fundamental
constitutional questions how
well republicans will say you can't try
a president once he's out of office
but there is precedent albeit very
little precedent and you have to go back
quite a ways more than a hundred years
uh to find an example of where the u.s
senate tried not a president but another
high official of the u.s government
after resigning and leaving office and
many constitutional scholars will agree
that because the president was impeached
while he was still in office just a
couple days before he left
that it is legal to do this and of
course the whole point is
democrats hope that if they could
convict donald trump they could then
take the next step the senate could take
the next step to then bar him from ever
running from office
for office again and therefore not uh
being a threat
to u.s politics in the future that's the
constitutional claim there's also
free speech claims uh republican
supporters and trump's own lawyers say
that you know he has the right to free
speech
and whatever he may have said uh wasn't
incitement but was
uh his you know constitutionally
protected right to say his opinion which
is something that many constitutional
scholars are
are also rather doubtful about well in
our report we heard a rep
republican uh senator say that this uh
trial will not help heal the country uh
what's your take on this
well it probably won't but i'm not sure
if that is the point we also heard in
that report from someone on the
democratic side that said accountability
is important if you're always just
sticking your head in the sand and
hoping things will go away that that
often will lead to things getting worse
because it condones bad
behavior to give just one quick
comparison you know when
barack obama came into office there was
a lot of pressure on him
to investigate the bush years whether it
was the lies going into the iraq war
torture allegations surveillance
allegations
extrajudicial drone strikes that were
considered by some to be assassinations
and the obama administration basically
said no we want to look forward we don't
want to divide the nation
we don't want to dig all of that up and
what barack obama
not as a result but but by it basically
was irrelevant
because the the country remained
extremely divided
under his eight years in power and
republicans
used every possible moment to further
divide the nation and turn people
against him regardless if they
investigated or didn't so
i'm not sure how much the impeachment
process plays
in healing or not healing the nation for
democrats this is about accountability
thank you very much william bluecroft
for this
assessment
you