Donald Trump rages at his defense attorneys after 'rambling' opening speech praising Democrats and admitting he lost election caused Republican Bill Cassidy to vote with Democrats for trial to go ahead - but ex-president is still on track for acquittal
- The Senate will move forward with its trial against Donald Trump on Wednesday
- The upper chamber voted 56-44 on Tuesday evening that impeaching a former president is constitutional
- Six Republicans joined the 50 Democrats in deciding to progress the proceedings forward, despite Trump's almost assured acquittal in the Senate
- Those who voted with Democrats were Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney , Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey and most surprising of all, Bill Cassidy
- Cassidy previously agreed with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and 43 other Republicans that impeaching an official who is no longer in office is against the Constitution
- The second impeachment trial against Donald Trump kicked off with Democrats playing a video about the January 6 MAGA riot at the Capitol, focusing on the violence and featuring Trump's words
- 'You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution? That's a high crime and misdemeanor,' Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin said
- Trump attorney Bruce Castor started off his defense of the former president with a rambling soliloquy that veered between name-dropping senators and flattery
- 'You know, senators of the United States, they are not ordinary people. There are extraordinary people in the technical sense, extraordinary people,' Castor said
- Trump will take a break from golfing this week to closely follow his second impeachment trial on TV from his Mar-a-Lago residence
- The trial could run straight through the weekend – with a potential conviction vote on Monday; Trump is expected to be acquitted
- Trump was put off when Castor tipped his hat to the Democratic managers' presentation, calling it 'well done'
President Donald Trump was set off by the defense mustered by his legal team at the start of his Senate impeachment trial, raging at key admissions and a presentation that appeared to drive away a key Republican vote.
Trump, viewing the proceedings from his new home at Mar-a-Lago, was aghast that one of his lawyers, Bruce Castor, acknowledged the potency of the opening argument put forward by House Democratic impeachment managers, ABC News reported.
Castor even acknowledged that his team changed course after viewing the Democrats' presentation, which featured dramatic video of Trump supporters storming the Capitol and taunting police officers with obscenities as they bashed in doors and windows.
‘I’ll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers’ presentation was well done,’ Castor admitted. ‘And I wanted you to know that we have responses to those things.’
One Trump advisor even told CNN getting good legal representation was a concern if he is ever charged in criminal court, which is now possible since he is out of office.
'Trump is f***** if anyone ever charges him. No one wants to work with him,' said the advisor.
The concern boiling up from Florida was also playing out in the Senate hallways, where Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called the legal presentation 'disorganized' and 'random' and said it swayed him to vote with Democrats on the issue of constitutionality.
Castor rejected criticism bubbling up when asked about it in the Senate. 'I thought we had a good day,' he said.
Trump's concerns about his team's performance came after the sudden departure of a group of South Carolina lawyers who were going to represent him at the trial, amid reports Trump wanted the trial to feature a vigorous defense of his own claims the election was stolen.
Personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani is a potential witness in the case, having also spoken to a rally before the MAGA mob ransacked the trial and urging 'trial by combat.' Attorneys from the first impeachment are not representing him, and he no longer has the use of the office of White House counsel now that he is out of office.
Castor made other admissions that may have grated on Trump, calling him a 'former president' while also saying: 'President Trump no longer is in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He was removed by the voters.' He was arguing against the need for a post-presidency impeachment.
The Senate will move forward with its trial against Donald Trump when it meets on Wednesday after Democrats, and six Republicans, voted 56-44 Tuesday that impeaching the former president is constitutional.
But there was little sign that Democrats can gain the total of 17 Republican senators they would need to vote with them to convict Trump at the end of the trial, which could come as quickly as Saturday - despite even Republicans who voted to call off the trial mocking his defense team's performance.
During three-and-half hours of debate on the Senate floor Tuesday, the defense and prosecution had the chance to argue whether holding an impeachment trial of a former official is in line with the Constitution.
Several Republicans, however, are ridiculing Trump's defense team for missing the point of their outlined argument against the constitutionality of the timing of the proceedings.
'I thought the President's lawyer – the first lawyer just rambled on and on and on and didn't really address the constitutional argument,' Texas Senator John Cornyn told reporters outside the chamber following his vote against moving forward.
'Finally, the second lawyer got around to it and, I thought, did an effective job,' he continued, referencing David Schoen. 'But I've seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was not one of the finest I've seen.'
The Republican senators who voted along with Democrats include Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania voted to move the proceedings forward.
Most surprising of the six is Cassidy, who previously agreed with 44 other Republicans that holding the trial would go against the Constitution's intent since he is no longer the sitting president.
Cassidy was straightforward on what swayed him to change his mind: Trump's legal defense.
'Did you listen to it?,' he said to reporters gathered after the vote. 'If you listen to it, it speaks for itself. It was disorganized, random, they talked about many things but they didn't talk about the issue at hand.'
'And so if I'm an impartial juror, and I'm trying to make a decision based upon the facts as presented on this issue, then the House managers did a much better job,' Cassidy said.
He also released a statement reiterating his thought process on the vote.
'If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump's lawyers,' the Louisiana senator said. 'The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president's team did not.'
He made clear in the statement, however: 'This vote is not a prejudgment on the final vote to convict.'
Castor, however, defended himself against critics – including Republican lawmaker – claiming he doesn't plan to switch up any legal strategy going forward in the trial.
'I thought we had a good day,' Castor repeatedly told press on Capitol Hill Tuesday evening when asked about criticism he didn't make a good case against constitutionality for the trial.
'Do you anticipate any sort of adjustments after today?' a reporter asked of the former president's attorney.
'No, I set up the outline a week ago and it will not change,' he shot back.
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The Senate voted 56-44, with six Republicans crossing the party line, to move forward with its trial against Donald Trump on Wednesday – claiming it is constitutional to try a former president
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Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said he changed his vote in favor of proceeding with the trial because Trump's lawyers did not convince him against the constitutionality of moving forward. 'If anyone disagrees with my vote and would like an explanation, I ask them to listen to the arguments presented by the House Managers and former President Trump's lawyers,' Cassidy said. 'The House managers had much stronger constitutional arguments. The president's team did not'
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Texas Senator John Cornyn, while walking from the chamber to his office Tuesday evening, also said Trump's lawyers made him feel the case against constitutionality for the trial wasn't as strong as it could be. He still voted, however, not to proceed
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'I thought the President's lawyer – the first lawyer just rambled on and on and on and didn't really address the constitutional argument,' Cornyn said of Trump's defense attorney Bruce Castor (pictured)
Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey (left) and Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (right) also voted the trial is constitutional
The three usual defector suspects – moderate Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah (left) Susan Collins of Maine (center) and Lisa Murkowsk iof Alaska (right) – also voted to proceed with the second impeachment trial against Trump
Democrats began their impeachment case against Trump Tuesday afternoon with a video of profanity and violence during the January 6 MAGA attack on the Capitol.
The former president's defense team claimed the video showing was part of the left turning the proceedings into a 'bloodsport' for some of Trump's biggest critics.
'We now learn that the House managers in their wisdom have hired a movie company and a large law firm to create, manufacture and splice for you a package designed by experts to chill and horrify you and our fellow Americans,' Trump's defense lawyer David Schoen decried from the Senate floor.
He added: 'They don't need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here. We will stipulate that it happened, and you know all about it. This is a process fueled irresponsibly by base hatred by these House managers.'
The more than 14-minute video presented at the top of the Democrats' case for conviction included snappy cuts between the violence of the pro-Trump mob and the former president's speech just beforehand.
Trump's defense attorney Bruce Castor, however, made less of a legal case and went more for flattery, praising the senators for their work, their patriotism and dedication to country.
That flattery apparently held no bearing as senators Castor specifically mentioned, like his home state's Toomey, voted against the defense.
When walking out of the chamber on Tuesday night, Murkowski made clear to reporters that she felt Trump's lawyers missed their opportunity to present a coherent case against the constitutionality of impeaching now-private citizen Trump.
'Today was supposed to be an opportunity to be briefed on the constitutionality of whether or not you can move forward with an impeachment of a former president,' the Alaska moderate said. 'I thought that the House presented a pretty good legal analysis.'
She also claimed Castor was a disaster for the former president, but said Schoen was able to redeem some of the legal argument.
'In fairness, I was really stunned at the first attorney who presented for former President Trump,' she said of Castor. 'I couldn't figure out where he was going, spent 45 minutes going somewhere, but I don't think he helped with us better understanding where he was coming from on the constitutionality of this.'
The Democrats went for the gut punch, using their opening argument to remind senators of what happened the day of the riot, the confusion, fear and brute force that was in play as lawmakers fled from the mass of Trump supporters.
The video showed highlights from the insurrection, including Trump urging his supporters to 'fight like hell' at a rally outside the White House that morning. It also showed the violence and destruction the rioters inflicted as they fought their way through police lines and breached the building.
The defense team also presented their own video more than an hour-and-a-half into their two-hours of argument.
Their video included dramatic, dark music with clips of Democrats preemptively saying they would call to impeach Trump starting just days into his presidency. This included a 2019 clip of Representative Rashida Tlaib, just after becoming a congresswoman, saying, 'We're going to impeach the motherf***er.'
At the end of Tuesday, the full Senate will vote on the constitutionality of impeaching an ex-president.
Then, the rest of the trial is expected to run through the weekend with a potential vote on convicted on Monday – while others are more optimistic and believe a vote could come as early as Saturday.
Schoen lamented that scheduling the process over the week is an attempt to drag out the process of bringing down Trump's name.
'They want to put you through a 16-hour presentation over two days, focusing on this as if it were some sort of bloodsport,' Schoen lamented. 'And to what end? For healing? For unity? For accountability? Not for any of those, for surely there are much better ways to achieve each.'
He added: 'It is, again, for pure, raw, misguided partisanship that makes them believe playing to our worse instincts somehow is good.'
Lead Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin began the Democrats' case with an impassioned speech on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial and ending with an emotional personal story of the riot and how it affected him. At times he held back tears as he recounted what happened on January 6.
And it wasn't just about him, he told a captive Senate audience, which sat in silence listening to him.
''This trial is personal for every senator and for every member of the House, for every manager and all our staff and the capital police and the Washington DC metropolitan police and the National Guard and maintenance and custodial crews and the print journalists and TV people who were here,' Raskin said.
In contrast, Trump attorney Bruce Castor started off his defense of the former president with a rambling soliloquy that veered between name-dropping the senators he knows and praising the Senate for its work.
'And you know, senators of the United States, they are not ordinary people. There are extraordinary people in the technical sense, extraordinary people,' Castor said.
'I have been around the United States senators before. Two of them in this room from Pennsylvania and I would like to think are friendly towards me or at least friends of mine when we are not politically adverse,' he noted.
He talked about how he worked in the Senate forty years ago and 'I got lost then and I still do.'
He eventually got around to mentioning Donald Trump. He launched a general defense about the freedom of speech, noting people have the right to disagree with anyone, even Trump.
'I do not expect and I don't believe former president expect anybody to walk back any of the language. If that is how they feel about the way things transparent over the last couple of years in his country, they should be allowed to say that. And I will go to court and defend them if anything happens to them as a result,' Castor said.
One of the arguments Trump's legal team made is that his speech the morning of January 6th was not inciting a mob but protected free speech under the first amendment.
'We cannot possibly be suggesting that we punish people for political speech in this country,' he said.
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Donald Trump's second defense lawyer David Schoen argued Tuesday that Democrats are using the impeachment proceedings as 'bloodsport' to drag the former president through the wringer
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Democrat impeachment managers kicked off their argument for conviction by playing a 14-minute video highlighting the violence of the MAGA mob on January 6
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Schoen accused: 'We now learn that the House managers in their wisdom have hired a movie company and a large law firm to create, manufacture and splice for you a package designed by experts to chill and horrify you and our fellow Ameircas... They don't need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here'
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House lead impeachment manager Representative Jamie Raskin points up at a video that he had just shown of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol building, cut together with parts of the former president's speech on January 6
The main argument from Castor, and fellow defense attorney David Schoen, is meant to focus on the unconstitutionality of moving forward with impeachment of an ex-president. Most of their floor speech on Tuesday, however, did not present much legal argument for that stance.
Toward the end of Castor's more than 45-minute remarks, he said: 'President Trump is no longer is in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He was removed by the voters.'
The impeachment managers, however, presented a strong, coherent and cohesive argument to one from Trump's lawyers that a former president cannot be impeachment. The Democratic prosecutors pointed out that Trump was president when the impeachable offense was conducted, making him liable under the law.
But they let the video speak for them and used the words of the rioters as part of their case:
'Find Mike,' one of the rioters is heard yelling about then Vice President Pence.
'F*** you police,' one yelled as he confronted Capitol Police officers outside the Capitol.
'Where the f*** are they,' another person yells as the rioters made their way through the building.
'There's got to be something useful in here,' one says as he flips through files, tossing documents on the floor.
Senators were also shown footage from the Senate that morning, where they all sat where they did on Tuesday as they heard evidence. They saw Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell speak against Trump's attempts to overturn the election and the chamber being gavelled out of session as rioters made their way toward them. There was also a clip of officer Eugene Goodman leading the rioters away from the Senate as the senators were evacuated.
Impeachment managers included a clip of Trump's video tweet, where he told the rioters he loved them.
And the senators saw rioters use chairs to try and break the glass outside the House chamber, trying to get in as Capitol Police officers held them off. They heard the shot as rioter Ashli Babbitt was killed.
The sounds from the video seemed to echo through the Senate chamber, filling it with the screams and yells of the mob.
Senators were in the Capitol on January 6th, but the video brought it all back, showing a condensed version of attack and previously unseen footage of the rioters.
When the video concluded, it was silent. Senators sat quietly until Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin began his argument again. Senators then shuffled in their seats, opening binders and rustling papers.
Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, kicked off the Democrats' argument that the impeachment of a former president is illegal, countering one of the main defense that Trump's attorneys will deploy, which is that an impeached president cannot be tried.
'You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution? That's a high crime and misdemeanor,' Raskin said, pointing to one of the monitors in the chamber after the video aired. 'If that's not an impeachable offense then there is no such thing.'
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