Impeachment Trial: Arguments for and against
Feb 9, 2021, 7:41 AM | Updated: 1:04 pm
The second impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump will begin on Tuesday as he faces a single charge for “incitement of insurrection.”
Opening arguments will be postponed until Wednesday morning as the Senate plans to center its debate around the question of whether a trial can even move forward now that President Trump is no longer in office.
Tuesday’s debate on that matter is expected to begin around 11 a.m on Tuesday and last at least through the weekend. KSL NewsRadio will air the entirety of the trial on the KSL X-stream.
You can also stay up to date with live updates throughout the day on KSL NewsRadio and on the free KSL NewsRadio app on iOS devices and on Android devices
As part of our coverage, we spoke to legal scholars about the cases that both sides are poised to make over the course of the next few days.
The case for convicting President Trump
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the Electoral College certification of Joe Biden as President, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The second Senate impeachment trial against President Trump is set to start this week, and some political analysts believe it will be short, not even lasting a week. Senate Democrats say the former president’s speech in early January directly led to rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, and some political analysts in Utah believe there is a strong case to convict him.
According to Politico, some Senate Democrats don’t even want witnesses to be called, believing the president’s speech before the violent protest in Washington D.C. is all they need to focus on. So, what are the odds of getting a conviction?
Impeachment trial: The case against convicting President Trump
President Donald Trump gestures at a campaign rally in support of U.S. Senate candidates Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., and David Perdue in Dalton, Ga., Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
The Senate will begin the second impeachment trial to decide the question of whether President Trump incited an insurrection on Tuesday. But opening arguments won’t be heard until Wednesday. That’s because today, the debate will center around the question of whether a trial can even move forward now that President Trump is no longer in office.
“Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution says that when this moves to the Senate stage, they have the capacity to exercise that power to remove someone from office, but also a power to disqualify someone from holding and enjoying the office going forward,” University of Utah law professor RonNell Andersen Jones said.
“The argument is that not just that Congress shouldn’t impeach and remove Trump, but that it can’t do so because the Constitution doesn’t allow for the impeachment and removal of former officers.”
