U.S. Senate Agrees On Trump Impeachment Trial Amid Frustration Over Lawyers
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Amid tight security, a divided U.S. Senate voted 56 to 44 on Tuesday to hold the impeachment trial of ex-president Donald J. Trump, despite his lawyers’ argument that it is unconstitutional.
While most Republicans stood with Trump and his legal team, they also expressed frustration over his lawyers’ performance.
The lawyers contended the Senate cannot convict a person no longer in office. But the House impeachment managers said Trump had a role in inciting the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol. They claimed he should be held accountable.
The opening arguments in the trial were due to begin Wednesday. However, Trump’s lawyers didn’t impress several Republican senators and other onlookers.
Two members of the former president’s legal team, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, sought on Tuesday to persuade the Senate to dismiss the trial on constitutional grounds.
But Castor’s performance, in particular, drew criticism as waffling and lacking in focus.
And Republican senators said they didn’t understand the lawyers’ arguments. The Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, who voted with Democrats to move forward with the trial, said Trump’s team did a “terrible job” and was “disorganized”, “random” and “did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand”.
Cassidy wasn’t the only Republican expressing displeasure with Trump’s defense team. Susan Collins, a Republican senator of Maine, said she was “perplexed” by Castor, who is Trump’s lead lawyer. She added that he “did not seem to make any arguments at all, which was an unusual approach to take”.
“The president’s lawyer just rambled on and on,” noted Senator John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas. “I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments, and that was not one of the finest I’ve seen.”
The Texas senator Ted Cruz, one of Trump’s staunchest allies, said he didn’t think the lawyers did “the most effective job” while praising the Maryland representative Jamie Raskin, who is acting as the Democrats’ lead prosecutor, as “impressive”.
Cornyn and Cruz both still voted to dismiss the trial, along with 42 other Republican senators. Six Republicans, including Cassidy and Collins, voted with Democrats to advance the trial.
Trump himself was reportedly unhappy with his lawyers’ showing. Media reported that sources close to the former president say he grew “increasingly frustrated” as he watched the day unfold on television.
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