But Raskin told the Senate, “What is impeachable conduct if not this? If you don’t find [that Trump committed] high crimes and misdemeanors [the standard for conviction of an impeachment charge] you have set a new terrible standard for presidential conduct.”
Earlier Thursday, another impeachment manager, Congresswoman Diana DeGette of Colorado, quoted numerous insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol who said they acted on Trump’s demands.
She said the mob “believed the commander in chief was ordering them. The insurrectionists made clear to police they were just following the orders of the president.”
“The insurrectionists didn’t make this up,” she said. “They were told [by Trump] to fight like hell. They were there because the president told them to be there.”
DeGette showed lawmakers several television interviews in which the protesters said they went to the Capitol because Trump had commanded them to do so.
Several impeachment managers warned that if Trump is acquitted, which is the likely outcome of the trial, he could be emboldened to create more chaos in another run for the presidency in 2024.
Congressman Ted Lieu of California said, "You know, I'm not afraid of Donald Trump running again in four years. I'm afraid he's going to run again and lose, because he can do this again."
Thursday’s session came after several lawmakers told reporters they were shaken by graphic, previously undisclosed videos of the mayhem the Democratic lawmakers showed them Wednesday, with scenes of dozens of officials scrambling to escape the mob that had stormed into the Capitol.
But there was no immediate indication that Republican supporters of Trump in the Senate were turning en masse against him. Trump remains on track to be acquitted.
A two-thirds vote is needed to convict Trump of a single impeachment charge, that he incited insurrection by urging hundreds of supporters to confront lawmakers at the Capitol to try to upend Biden’s victory. In the politically divided 100-member Senate, 17 Republicans would have to join every Democrat for a conviction.
At the moment, it appears that only a handful of Republicans might vote to convict Trump, the only president in U.S. history to be twice impeached.
Trump’s lawyers say he bears no responsibility for the attack on the Capitol. The Senate voted 56-44 on Tuesday to move ahead with the trial, rejecting Trump’s claim that it was unconstitutional to try him on impeachment charges since he has already left office. The vote also seemed to signal that relatively few Republicans appear willing to convict him.
Trump left Washington hours ahead of Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20 and is living at his Atlantic coastal mansion in Florida.
Original Article
