United States Democrats
began laying out a detailed case on Wednesday for the removal of the nation’s
President, Donald Trump, accusing him at his historic Senate impeachment trial
of seeking to cheat to ensure re-election in November. Adam Schiff, the head of
the prosecution team from the House of Representatives, took the floor of the
Senate for opening arguments after lawmakers were told by the sergeant-at-arms
to remain silent “on pain of imprisonment.”
“President Trump solicited foreign
interference in our democratic elections, abusing the powers of his office to
seek help from abroad to improve his re-election prospects at home,” the
California lawmaker told a hushed chamber. “And when he was caught, he used the
powers of that office to obstruct the investigation into his own misconduct,”
said Schiff, who headed the probe that led to Trump’s December 18 impeachment
by the Democratic-controlled House.
Schiff shrugged off
Republican arguments that American voters — and not the Senate — should decide
whether Trump should remain in the White House. “The president’s misconduct
cannot be decided at the ballot box for we cannot be assured that the vote will
be fairly won,” Schiff said. “The president has shown that he believes he is
above the law.” Trump is accused of withholding military aid from Ukraine to
pressure his Ukrainian counterpart to announce an investigation into Democrat
Joe Biden. “It was a smear tactic against a political opponent President Trump
apparently feared,” Schiff said at the nationally televised Senate trial.
“President Trump withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to a
strategic partner at war with Russia to secure foreign help with his
re-election,” he said.
“In other words, to
cheat. “If this conduct is not impeachable, then nothing is.” Interspersing his
remarks with videos and graphics and references to the Constitution, Schiff
appealed to the members of the Senate to put aside partisanship in deciding
Trump’s fate. “These are politically charged times,” he acknowledged. “Tempers
can run high, particularly where this president is concerned.” But, Schiff
said, “the Constitution entrusts to you the responsibility of acting as
impartial jurors.” – ‘Fairly quickly’ – Republicans, who hold a 53 to 47 edge
in the Senate, have shown little inclination, however, to break ranks with a
president who has a history of lashing out ferociously at his perceived
enemies.
A two-thirds majority —
or 67 senators — is needed to remove Trump from office and a series of votes on
the ground rules for the trial on Tuesday followed strict party lines.
Republicans shot down repeated efforts by Democrats to introduce White House
witnesses and documents at the start of just the third impeachment trial in US
history. Trump, who was attending the World Economic Forum in Davos as the
historic trial got underway on Tuesday, blasted the proceedings as a “witch
hunt” and a “hoax” and said he expected the Senate to clear him “fairly
quickly.”
The US president
defended the Republicans’ rejection of Democratic efforts to force former
national security advisor John Bolton and others to testify at his trial saying
of Bolton, for example, that it would present a “national security problem.”
“John, he knows some of my thoughts,” Trump said. “He knows what I think about
leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and
it’s not very positive?” House impeachment managers have 24 hours over three
days to make their case that Trump is guilty of abuse of power and obstruction
of Congress.
White House lawyers then
have 24 hours to present their defence. Senators will then have an opportunity
to ask written questions to be read out aloud by US Supreme Court Chief Justice
John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial. Roberts’ role is mostly
ceremonial but he did warn both sides during heated exchanges on Tuesday to
watch their decorum. “Those addressing the Senate should remember where they
are,” Roberts said. – ‘Quit obsessing’ – Trump’s personal attorney, Jay
Sekulow, said the White House will “challenge aggressively the case that
they’re putting forward.” “There’s a lot of things to rebut and we’ll do it in
an orderly and systematic fashion,” he told CNN. The next few days are likely
to be an endurance test for members of the Senate, some of whom are in their
80s.
Senators are barred from
having their cellphones and computers at their desks and they have been
spending their time chatting quietly or scribbling on notepads when not
listening intently. The four Democratic senators seeking to challenge Trump for
the White House have been forced to take time off from campaigning ahead of the
first state caucuses to choose their party’s nominee in Iowa on February 3.
Reaction to the impeachment trial has been mixed among voters. “The general
consensus I feel I hear from people is ‘Why don’t they just freaking do their
jobs and quit obsessing over this?'” said Rick D’Agostino, the owner of the
Sheffield Lanes bowling lanes in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.
Flavio Quintela, a Washington businessman,
said he thought the impeachment trial was “more theatrical now than anything.”
“Because, you know, the Senate is most likely not approving it,” Quintela said.
“It really looks like some electoral move, which I don’t think is going to
work.”