Live Coverage: The Second Trump Impeachment Trial
WASHINGTON — Rocky Mountain PBS is providing live coverage of the second impeachment trial for former president Donald Trump.
“The Second Trump Impeachment Trial, A PBS NewsHour Special,” began Tuesday, February 9 at 11 a.m. We are also live streaming each day of the trial on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
The first day of the trial was a “constitutional debate” that lasted several hours. You can watch the full coverage from NewsHour here. Day two of the trial includes general arguments, according to NewsHour's congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins. Each side has up to 16 hours to present their overall case.
Coverage for day two of the trial and beyond will begin at 10 a.m. MT, and will also broadcast on Rocky Mountain PBS. You can watch it live in the video player below.
After day one of the trial, the Senate voted 56-44 to continue with the impeachment trial, declaring it constitutional.
Six republicans voted with Democrats in rejecting the defense team's argument that because Trump is no longer in office, the trial should end.
Trump is the first president in the history of the United States to be impeached twice. He is also the only president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office. The House of Representatives first impeached Trump in December 2019 for “abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” but the Senate did not vote to convict him.
This time, Trump faces one charge: incitement of insurrection.
The House voted to impeach Trump for his role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in which a violent mob of the then-president’s supporters rushed the Capitol building as lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. The attack left five people dead, including a police officer.
“His conduct endangered the life of every single member of Congress, jeopardized the peaceful transition of power and line of succession, and compromised our national security,” the Democratic managers of the impeachment case wrote. “This is precisely the sort of constitutional offense that warrants disqualification from federal office.”
Trump’s lawyers, meanwhile, have labeled the impeachment trial “political theater,” saying it is an attempt by “Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a few hundred people.”
Ten republicans in the House voted with Democrats to impeach the president. However, convicting Trump in the Senate requires 67 votes; reaching that mark appears to be a “near impossibility,” according to reporting from the Associated Press.
Since he is no longer president, convicting Trump obviously does not remove him from office. But there are other consequences. For example, if it decides to convict Trump, the Senate could also vote to bar Trump from holding office in the future (this would prevent him from running for president again in 2024, as he has hinted he might do). That vote would only require a simple majority.