Former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial continues into its third day Thursday, with House impeachment managers and lawyers for the defense continuing upward of four days of proceedings.
House impeachment managers, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), went first on Wednesday for their first of two eight-hour sessions. Trial rules allow each side 16 hours to present their arguments with an eight-hour daily cap.
The team has one more eight-hour session on Thursday to make their case for “incitement of insurrection.”
Once Raskin’s team has finished delivering their case, or has run out of the allotted 16 hours, Trump’s defense lawyers will have their turn to argue theirs.
As they’ve done in days prior, House managers plan to continue their use of video taken during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, which has served as a key element of their impeachment effort.
The House voted 232-197 to impeach Trump one week to the day after the siege, in which five people died.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of Thursday’s proceedings:
Where to watch
The trial will be carried on all major TV news networks, and will also be available for streaming through C-Span, PBS and YouTube, beginning at 12 p.m. ET.
How it works
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is presiding over the Senate trial — rather than Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who presided over Trump’s first trial last year.
Leahy said the chief justice won’t preside because Trump is no longer president.
House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) agrees to strike some of their impeachment prosecution comments on Feb. 10, 2021. Senate Television via AP“The [Senate] president pro tempore has historically presided over Senate impeachment trials of non-presidents,” Leahy, 80, said in a statement.
Proceedings were originally going to take a pause from Friday evening through Saturday for Trump attorney David Schoen to observe the Jewish Sabbath. But in a last-minute schedule change, Schoen rescinded that request.
The trial is still not expected to go on past Sunday.
What’s happened in the trial so far
On Tuesday, the first day of proceedings, House impeachment managers debated Trump’s attorneys, David Schoen and Bruce Castor, on the constitutionality of the trial itself.
Bruce Castor, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, seen during the impeachment trial on Feb. 10, 2021. Pool via CNP/SplashNews.comCastor spoke during his remarks before the Senate about the fall of ancient governments in Rome and Greece, addressing the case against the former president.
His performance was panned by Democratic and GOP senators alike, leading one Republican, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, to change positions and vote to call the trial constitutional.
On Wednesday, Democratic prosecutors presented dramatic, previously unseen video footage of the deadly siege, as well as clips of the then-president’s speech at the “Save America Rally” just before.
As he delivered arguments, Raskin called Trump the “inciter-in-chief” of the riot before accusing the 45th president of watching the violence unfold on TV with “glee and delight.”
“To us, it may have felt like chaos and madness — but there was method to the madness that day,” Raskin said.
Fellow impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) argued that Trump set the stage for the riot in the months before by repeating the “big lie” that the election had been “stolen, full of fraud, rigged.”
Neguse also said that during the speech to his supporters, Trump “didn’t just tell them to ‘fight like hell,’ he told them how, where and when” — then did nothing afterward.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) speaks during the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump on Feb. 10, 2021. Senate Television via AP“Ask yourself: If, as soon as this had started, if he had gone on TV or logged onto Twitter and said, ‘Stop this attack’ with as much force as he said, ‘Stop the steal,’ how many lives would have been saved?” Neguse said.
“Unfortunately, he didn’t do that.”
Chaos ensued at the end of Wednesday’s proceedings, when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) demanded that remarks made by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) associated with him be stricken from the record.
The statement in question was related to reports by unnamed sources of a voicemail allegedly released by Lee’s office that had been left on his phone by Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.
Vice President Mike Pence being taken to a secure room and evacuated during the Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, in previously unseen footage. US Senate/Handout via ReutersGiuliani had allegedly been trying to reach Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) but unknowingly phoned Lee instead and left a message asking him to help delay the Electoral College certification process.
It is not believed that Lee had any actual contact with Giuliani or involvement in the matters being heard in the impeachment trial.
While delivering arguments Wednesday, however, Cicilline characterized the series of events differently.
Trump supporters fighting against Capitol Police on Jan. 6, 2021. US Senate/Handout via Reuters“Sen. Lee described it. He had just ended a prayer with his colleagues here in the Senate chamber, and the phone rang. It was Donald Trump. Sen. Lee explains that the phone call goes something like this: ‘Hey, Tommy,’ Trump asks. Sen. Lee says, ‘This isn’t Tommy.’ He hands the phone to Sen. Tuberville,” the Rhode Island lawmaker said.
“Sen. Lee then confirmed that he stood by as Sen. Tuberville and President Trump spoke on the phone. And on that call, Donald Trump reportedly asked Sen. Tuberville to make additional objections to the certification process,” he continued.
Cicilline’s claim appeared to infuriate Lee, who was seen by a gaggle of reporters writing “This is not what happened” on a sheet of paper, ripping it off his legal pad and handing it to Schoen.
The remarks were later stricken following commotion, with Raskin defending Cicilline’s depiction of events, saying he “correctly and accurately quoted a newspaper account which the distinguished senator has taken objection to.”
“We’re happy to withdraw it,” he continued, adding, “This is much ado about nothing because it’s not critical in any way to our case.”
“You’re not the one being cited as a witness, sir,” Lee hit back.
Schoen slammed the incident during a Fox News appearance later Wednesday evening, denouncing House managers for using unnamed sources in press outlets as source material for trial proceedings.
“I don’t know if you saw today when Sen. Mike Lee stood up and objected, that they falsely attributed to him statements that he never made, and he made an objection and the whole place sort of blew up in a hullabaloo,” the Trump attorney said.
Schoen went on to note that Raskin agreed to withdraw it “and check their sources. He said he thinks their source is the media, I think ‘the Washington Post,’ he might have said.”
“But if you look at the videos and the clips they show, some sources are ‘reportedly,’ others are ‘sources said.’ They have hearsay on hearsay on hearsay,” he continued.
The defense lawyer went on to denounce House managers for not confirming the information they presented in arguments with the direct sources, which in this case would have been Lee himself.
“Can you imagine that, that disrespect to a senator?” he asked.
Where Democrats and Republicans stand
Democrats hold a slight edge in the 50-50 Senate by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote, meaning they would need 17 Republicans to cross the aisle and vote to convict Trump, which appears less and less likely.
While Castor’s performance itself was criticized in a bipartisan fashion, the attorney does not appear to be moving those senators in the former president’s camp toward convicting.
Democrats remain almost completely united in their support for convicting Trump.
Asked whether he thought any Republican minds had been changed after Tuesday’s proceedings, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) replied, “Ask them.”
A tweet from Donald Trump that was presented during the impeachment trial on Feb. 10, 2021. Senate Television via APAs of Wednesday night, not many of those minds appear changed, as evidenced by the slew of Republicans who made cable news appearances after the trial condemning it on multiple fronts.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News late Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the charges against the former president “offensive and absurd.”
“They were planning bombs the night before,” he continued. “So the whole story line that Donald Trump caused this, by the speech, has fallen apart thanks to good law enforcement activity.”
Graham continued, “This thing is collapsing before their eyes and the ‘not guilty’ vote is growing.”
Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) described the impeachment during an appearance on “Fox News @ Night” Wednesday as an “unconstitutional show trial” meant to “humiliate” the ex-president and “shame” his voters.
“[Democrats] are continuing to pursue this because really what the aim is, I think, is to humiliate President Trump, to discredit his policies and to shame the 74 million people who voted for him into conformity,” the first-term Tennessee senator noted.
In another appearance on “Hannity” Wednesday night, Reps. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also slammed the impeachment proceedings.
Jordan also referenced the “pre-planned” argument from House impeachment managers, asking, “How did the president incite a breach of the Capitol when the FBI knew ahead of time this was pre-planned? When pipe bombs were found ahead of time, before the president even had the rally.”
“Last summer, Democrat members of the Congress said there needs to be more unrest in the streets, while there was unrest in the streets — and somehow that’s not incitement?” Jordan added.
“But when the president says ‘peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,’ they’re going to impeach him?”
Nunes, meanwhile, knocked the impeachment prosecutors’ evidence, saying none of it proved that the then-president personally incited the violence.
“What is really happening here is you have a radical left in total control of the government now and they don’t want Donald Trump to win. They fear his rallies. They fear that 74.5 million people voted for Donald Trump. That is what is really going on here,” he told the network.
Where Biden stands
The current commander-in-chief, for his part, has steered clear of the impeachment effort by other leaders in his party.
When asked whether President Biden would be watching the proceedings on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, “The president himself would tell you that we keep him pretty busy, and he has a full schedule this week.
“I think it’s clear from the schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceeding, if any time.”
When asked directly about it outside the White House on Monday, Biden declined to offer his stance, saying it should be left to the Senate to decide.
“Look, he [Trump] got an offer to come testify. He decided not to. We will let the Senate work it out.”









