Presiding is not john roberts, because theyre not trying the president of the United States. Perhaps the Gold Standard of the meaning of the constitution, commentary when the constitution was signed, said you cannot impeach a former official. John hold on there for a second. Sandra the senate has now come to order. Lets dip in and listen. The words of the new england poet James Russell lowell, to provide our Senate Jurors with just one perspective. Lowell wrote, once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide. In the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side. Mighty god, could it really be that simple . Could it really be that truth, strives falsehood and good striving against evil . Powerful redeemer, have mercy on our beloved land. We pray in your magnificent name, amen. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. [ pledge of allegiance ] morning business is closed, and the senate will convene as a court of impeachment. I ask senators to be seated. If there is no objection, the proceedings of the trial are approved to date. Id ask the sergeant in arms, make the proclamation. Hear ye, hear ye. All persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment of the senate of the United States as sitting for the trial of the article of impeachment exhibited by the house of representatives against Donald John Trump, former president of the United States. I note the presence in the senate chamber, managers of part of the house of representatives and counsel for the former president of the United States. Majority leader is recognized. Mr. President , in a moment, i will call up a resolution to govern the structure, the second impeachment trial of Donald John Trump. Its been agreed to by the house managers, the former president s counsel and is cosponsored by the republican leader. It is bipartisan. It is our solemn constitutional duty to conduct a fair and honest impeachment trial of the charges against former President Trump. The gravest charges ever brought against a president of the United States tphf american history. This resolution provides for a fair trial, and i urge the senate to adopt it. Mr. President , i send a resolution to the desk on my behalf and that of the republican leader for the organizing of the next phases of this trial. Senate resolution 47 to provide for related procedures concerning the article of impeachment against Donald John Trump, former president of the United States. I asked for yays and nays. Is there a sufficient second . There is a sufficient second. [ roll call ] mr. Blunt . Mr. Blunt aye. Mr. Bozeman . Mr. Bozeman aye. Mr. Braun, aye. Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown, aye. Mr. Birdwell. Yeah. Mrs. Capitell. Aye. Mr. Casey. Mr. Casey. Aye. Miss collins aye. Mr. Cornen sandra our Congressional Correspondent standing by. This is the first aspect in this senate trial. What you have to have laid out here is a resolution established the frame work, the parameters. We thought this might be what we call voice vote. This is where the loudest side wins. People say yay and nay. Thats where all 100 senators agree. What they decided was to call a poll call vote through the entire senate roll, all 100 senators and then approve this frame work. The frame work today calls for a debate on the constitutionality of the trial and then later in the week the managers will present their case, the president s defense counsel will present their case. There will be a time, presumably over the weekend or early next week. Thats when senators will be able to ask questions. Sometime next week you would have a vote on whether or not to have witnesses in this trial. Now, a vote later today would bring an end to the trial. Theyre going to consider the constitutionality here. A senate no vote on this, on the constitution of the trial, that pretty much ends the trial right there. It stops rather abruptly. Five Senate Republicans voted with democrats saying the trial was constitutional. That may not be a lot but its dissension, more than we saw with President Trumps impeachment trial last year. Here are the five to watch later today and in the coming weeks. Mitt romney of utah, Susan Collins of maine, Lisa Murkowski of alaska, pat toomey of pennsylvania and ben sash of nebraska. Thats a far cry of getting to 67 votes to convict the former president. Also look at other senators who are retiring, maybe rob portman of ohio, Mitch Mcconnell is not retiring but could influence republican senators in this process. Others to watch in the coming days who may be carefully weighing the evidence, todd young of indiana, bill cassidy of louisiana, Richard Shelby of alabama, he is retiring. Dan sullivan of alaska and deb fisher of nebraska. You have pretty much 38 to 40 republican senators who have made up their mind about the trial. Again, what this does, this establishes a frame work for the trial. Theyve submitted a couple versions of this resolution, a new one a few minutes ago, sandra. Sandra it appears everything is going as planned and naturally we would see the house impeachment managers make their arguments. That could be next . Thats right. Watch to see just how nimble the house impeachment managers may be. Some of the impeachment managers at this time, they angle to be impeachment managers in their last try. This is their consolation prize. Sandra thank you, john. John the question today is whether or not this trial can go ahead, whether it is constitutional or not constitutional. Judgment in cases of impeachment should not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States, which led Republican AttorneyCharles Cooper to write, a vote for the senate to disqualify can be taken only after the officer has been moved and is by definition a former officer given the constitution admits permanent disqualification on former office holders. It cooper is arguing here that its right and proper for the senate to be doing this because, again, article 1, section 3 of the constitution said impeachment is two parts here and you cant have the second part without the first part actually happening. Bret . Bret yeah. Compelling argument. Were going to see that play out on the senate floor. It is worth noting that this is history. Republicans say you dont have to go down this road and it shouldnt be being done, but its historic. Its the second time this president will have been impeached. I will say the beginning of this, all persons are commanded to be silent on pain of imprisonment is a great way to start a meeting. You can make sure the people are pretty quiet and we remember it from the first impeachment trial. I think, you know, if you just look at the numbers, john, theyre not there as of yet, as they lay out this evidence. I think the constitutionality question will move forward probably with a few defections with republicans. John if youve got 45 republican senators who are saying this is unconstitutional youre not going to get to 67 to convict. Martha no. We heard chad roll off the list of potential votes against the president. This goes back to how political this process is. Especially for republicans as that wall street journal editorial pointed out. It can be seen to identify them and stake their claim and hold to it in future elections. Sandra so we have been, as chad just described to us, watching this senate vote on approving the resolution which as you clearly described establishes the frame work of the trial. So we are awaiting the results of that to come in. As they do, bret, i want to throw to sal weissenberg. He spoke last hour with harris. He made it clear what the crucial question is. It doesnt look like theyre going to be able to show, you know, foreknowledge by the president of the specific storming of the capitol that happened. Harris ah. Again, that doesnt end the question. The real political question here on impeachment is, as liz cheney said, did he summon the crowd, assemble the crowd and light the fuse . Sandra and we are about to hear how they will make the case for just that. Bret . Bret it is one article, just one. There were possibilities of opening up all kinds of questions and other articles. But this is one article. They have to prove it, as just noted. The events of january 6th were horrific. We are likely going to see videotape. Not testimony. Witnesses have not been accepted yet. But a video of all of this. Sandra we are hearing the resolution. It was agreed to 89 yays. On the question of whether Donald John Trump is subject to the jurisdiction of impeachment for acts while committed as president of the United States not withstanding the expiration of the term in that office. Mr. Manager, are you a proponent or opponent of this question . Im a proponent. Mr. Castor, are you a proponent or opponent of this question . An opponent. Thank you. Mr. Manager, your party may proceed. First to be able to reserve time, if you wish. Mr. Raskin, youre recognized. Thank you very much, mr. President , distinguished members of the senate. Good afternoon. My name is jamie raskin. It is my honor to represent the people in the 8th district in the house and also to serve as the lead house manager. We will indeed reserve time for rebuttal. Thank you. I have been practicing constitutional law for three decades, i know there are people dreading endless lectures about the federalist papers. Please breathe easy. I remember well hw autumns line that a professor is someone who speaks while other people are sleeping. You will not be hearing extended lectures from me. Our case is based on cold hard facts. Its all about the facts. President trump sent his lawyers here today to try to stop the senate from hearing the facts of this case. They want to trial the call over before any evidence is even introduced. Their argument is that if you commit an Impeachable Offense in your last two weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity. You get away with it. In other words, conduct that would be a high crime and misdemeanor your first year as president , in your second year as president , in your third year as president and for the vast majority of your fourth year of president , you can do so without facing any constitutional accountability as all. This would create a brand new january exception to the constitution of the United States of america. A january exception. And everyone can see immediately why this is so dangerous. Its an invitation of the president to take his best shot at anything he may want to do on his way out the door including using violent means to lock that door. To hang on to the oval office at all costs and to block the peaceful transfer of power. In other words, the january exception is an invitation to our founders Worst Nightmare. And if we buy this radical argument that President Trumps lawyers advance, we risk allowing january 6th to become our future. And what will that mean for america . Think about it. What will the january exception mean to future generations if you want it . Ill show you. We will stop the steal. Today i will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election. After this, were gonna walk down and ill be there with you. Were gonna walk down, were gonna walk down to the capitol. To the capitol. We are going to the capitol, where our problems are. Its that direction. [ inaudible shouting ] thousands of folks came here. Where did they come from . [ inaudible shouting ] madam speaker, the Vice President and the United States senate [ applause ] [ shouting ] the constitution says you have to protect our country and you have to protect our constitution. You cant vote on fraud. And fraud breaks up everything, doesnt it . When you have somebody in the fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules. So i hope mike has the courage to do what he has to do. We might. We fight like hell. If you dont fight like hell, you arent going to have a country anymore. Were going to walk down pennsylvania avenue. I love pennsylvania avenue. And were going to the capitol. Were going to try and give our republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones dont need any of our help. Were going to try to give them the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country. Majority leader, were debating a step that has never been taken in american history. President trump claims the election was stolen. The assertions range from specific local allegations to constitutional arguments, to sweeping conspiracy theories. [ crowd chanting usa ] but, my colleagues, nothing before us proves illegalalty anywhere near the massive scale, the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election. Our house our house [ shouting ] my challenge today is not about the good people of arizona. We will stand in recess until the call of the chair. Thank you. [ crowd shouting ] mr. Speaker, can i have or in the chamber. The house will be in order. The house will be in order. Freedom Freedom Freedom [ crowd shouting ] [ crowd shouting ] [ crowd shouting ] fight for trump fight for trump theres never been a time like this, where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us. From me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election. But we cant play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. Go home. We love you. Youre very special. Youve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace. [ crowd shouting ] well take down every one of you senators, the president was impeached by the u. S. House of representatives on january 13th for doing that. You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution . Thats a high crime and misdemeanor. If thats not an Impeachable Offense, then there is no such thing. The president s arguments for a january exception are up held, even if everyone agrees hes culable for these events, even if the evidence proves, as we think it does, that the president incited a violent insurrection on the day congress met to finalize the president ial election, he would have you believe there is absolutely nothing the senate can do about it. No trial. No facts. He wants you to decide that the senate is powerless at that point. That cant be right. Transition of power is always the most dangerous moment for democracy. Every historian will tell you that. We just saw it in the most astonishing way. We lived through it. And do you know what . The framers of our constitution knew it. Thats why they created a constitution with an oath written into it that binds the president from his very first day in office until his very last day in office and every day in between. Under that constitution, and under that oath, the president of the United States is forbidden to commit high crimes and misdemeanors against the people at any point that hes in office. Indeed, thats one specific reason the impeachment, conviction and disqualification powers exist. To protect us against president s who try to overrun the power of the people in their elections and replace the rule of law with the rule of mobs. These powers must apply even if the president commits his offenses in his final weeks in office. In fact, thats precisely when we need them the most because thats when elections get attacked. Everything that we know about the language of the constitution, the framers original understanding and intents, prior practice and commonsense confirms this rule. Lets start with the text of the constitution. Article 1, section 2 gives the house the sole power of impeachment when the president commits high crimes and misdemeanors. We exercised that power on january 13th. The president , it is undisputed, committed his offense while he was president. And it is indisputed that we impeached him while he was president. There can be no doubt that this is a valid impeachment and there can be no doubt that the senate has the power to try this impeachment. We know this because article 1, section 3 gives the senate the sole power to try all impeachments. The senate has the power, the sole power, to try all impeachments. All means all. There are no exceptions to the rule. Because the senate has jurisdiction to try all impeachments, it most certainly has jurisdiction to try this one. The vast majority of constitutional scholars who study the question and weighed in on the proposition being advanced by the president this january exception heretofore unknown, agree with us. This includes the most prominent conservative legal scholars including Michael Mcconnell former 10th circuit judge. Cofounder of the federalist society. Ronald reagan solicitor general charles freed. Luminary washington lawyer Charles Cooper, among hundreds of constitutional professors. I commend the people i named their recent writings to you in the newspapers over the last several days. All of the key precedents, along with detailed explanation of the constitutional history and Technical Analysis appear in the trial brief we filed last week and the reply brief we made this morning. I want to highlight a few key points that strike me as compelling in foreclosen President Trumps argument that theres a secret january exception hidden away in the constitution. First point comes from english history which matters because hamilton where england provided the model that the idea of this institution has been borrowed. It would have been obvious to flinn familiar that history that former officials could be held accountable for their abuses while in office. Every single impeachment of a