February 9, 2021

Liveblog: Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial Begins With Damning Video of Insurrection

Here’s the latest.

Mother Jones illustration; Michael Brochstein/Sipa/AP; Getty

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Welcome to the second impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump.

The historic proceedings—which mark both the first time a president has been impeached twice, as well as the first impeachment trial for a former president—come about a month after the House charged Trump with inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The attack left five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead. Today’s debate, set to begin at 1 p.m. ET, will largely focus on the constitutionality of the trial, with Trump’s defense arguing it isn’t because he’s no longer in office. 

With many Republicans signaling they won’t vote to convict Trump no matter the evidence, Trump’s acquittal is all but a foregone conclusion, and the trial is expected to be an unusually swift one. But as my colleague Pema Levy explains, what happens over the next week or so will still be incredibly consequential and perhaps even more damaging for Republicans than Trump’s first impeachment. Follow along below for the latest:

5:10 p.m. ET: The Senate voted 56-44 to proceed with the impeachment trial. It will resume tomorrow at noon ET. See you then.

5:00 p.m. ET: Schoen inexplicably concluded by reading a Longfellow poem. Now it’s time for the Senate to vote on the constitutionality of trying a former president.

4:30 p.m. ET: David Schoen, Trump’s other defense lawyer, is speaking. His argument at least seems a bit more substantive.

3:00 p.m. ET: Trump’s defense lawyer Bruce Castor Jr. is now up. He started by arguing that the desire to convict Trump is borne out of a misplaced desire to blame someone for the Capitol violence. The rest was a bit more difficult to follow, to say the least.

2:30 p.m. ET: In a deeply emotional appeal, Raskin concludes by noting the personal stakes of this trial. Raskin, who buried his son the day before the insurrection, described having his daughter and son-in-law at the Capitol during the attack. “Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol,” he said his daughter told him after they were reunited. 

2:00 p.m. ET: The next impeachment, Rep. Joe Neguse, is now up.

1:10 p.m. ET: Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin opens with video evidence showing pro-Trump insurrectionists marching toward the Capitol shortly after Trump’s remarks at “Stop the Steal.” The chilling footage continues by offering an incredibly detailed rundown of everything leading up to the storming of the Capitol—and the mayhem that ensued once they broke in. 

11:45 a.m. ET: So how’s Trump taking all this in? According to Politico, the former president is in Mar-a-Lago, where he’s reportedly looking at this second impeachment trial and seeing a comeback. Trump is even likening this period to his Apprentice days.

“He’s compared it to that time in between seasons of ‘The Apprentice,’ building anticipation and wonderment for what’s to come,” one adviser told us of the period between his White House exit, eventual acquittal and his second act.

Other Trump advisers said he has revelled in his silence on Twitter — expressing amazement at how much coverage his few public statements have garnered.

“He finally realizes less is more,” one of them said.

9:00 a.m. ET: Another possible piece of evidence the prosecution could rely on is this video from “Stop the Steal” organizer Alan Hostetter, during which Hostetter called for the “execution” of Trump’s political foes. “The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable,” Hostetter told the rally, as seen in the video below. “And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.”

8:00 a.m. ET: Before things get started, let’s kick things off with a look at the rather damning evidence produced by none other than participants of the pro-Trump mob. 

According to our investigation, of the 194 federal criminal cases brought against insurrectionists so far, at least 13 people charged cited Trump explicitly as the reason they marched on the Capitol. At least three suspects who said Trump compelled them to join the siege were seen in video footage amid violent altercations: One who allegedly struck a police officer with a fire extinguisher, another who allegedly struck an officer with a baseball bat, and another who was among a group breaching the speaker’s lobby doors just before one pro-Trump rioter was fatally shot by a police officer. Among those charged in the insurrection to date are at least five members of the neofascist Proud Boys, whose Long Island chapter announced on social media in December that Trump had given them “the green light” for January 6.

House managers are likely to point to these exact accounts as evidence that the former president directly encouraged the Capitol insurrection. 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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