US Senate opens unprecedented 2nd impeachment trial of Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial has opened in the US Senate, with Democrats arguing that the former president should be convicted for inciting a violent mob of his supporters to attack the US Capitol on January 6.

Watch it live here:

Tuesday is the first day of arguments in the trial, which is expected to last around a week or more. Senators, sitting at their desks and in other locations around the chamber, will listen to arguments from Trump’s lawyers that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president. Democrats will dispute that claim, pointing to legal experts and historical precedent.

Each side has two hours to make its case today, after which the Senate is expected to vote and reject the GOP efforts to dismiss the trial.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the president pro tempore of the US Senate, who is presiding over the impeachment trial of former US president Donald Trump, swears in members of the Senate for the trial at the US Capitol in Washington, January 26, 2021. (Senate Television via AP)

The House prosecutors will cite the nation’s founders to declare a president “must answer comprehensively for his conduct in office from his first day in office through his last.” There is no “January exception” just before he leaves office, they will argue, according to aides granted anonymity to discuss the arguments ahead of the trial.