Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley tore into the Trump impeachment proceedings in the Senate as a “kangaroo trial” as Democrats continued their case against the former president on Thursday.
President Biden on Thursday said “some minds may be changed” in the Senate after House impeachment managers presented a graphic video of the mob attack on the Capitol last month during the impeachment trial for former President Trump.
The allegation of "incitement" is central to the impeachment case House Democrats are making against former President Donald Trump because it ties his words and actions to the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday condemned the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol but described this week’s Senate impeachment trial proceedings against former President Donald Trump as “a total kangaroo court.”
“You’re not going to get anything but condemnation from me for what happened with those criminals at the Capitol on Jan. 6, but that doesn't make the trial any more legitimate than it is, which is totally illegitimate — no basis in the Constitution,” Hawley (R-Mo.) said in a Fox News interview.
“What we're seeing is what we lived through. It’s what my staff lived through,” Hawley said. “The criminals who did it ought to be prosecuted as they are being and ought to be given the full measure of the law.”
When asked if he was acting out of loyalty to Trump, he insisted he was acting on behalf of his voters and the oath he took as a senator.
“The Republican Party — if it belongs to anybody — it belongs to the voters, the people who sent us here,” he said. “That's who I'm accountable to.”
The nine House impeachment managers spent Day One of their arguments in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial building a devastating case against Trump, showing not just the violence of January 6 but the months of incitement leading up to it. Senate Republicans seem unmoved. Well, the arguments aren’t done yet.
This is the second and final day of the House managers’ case against Trump. It will be aired on major television news networks and streamed on their websites. Daily Kos will have continuing coverage.
The second full day of presentations opened with Rep. Diana DeGette showing how those insurgents who invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6 believed they were doing what Trump had asked them to do.
Rep. Jamie Raskin now addressing that presentation and showing how insurgents acted in coordination with Trump.
Included in the presentations today, scenes from the white nationalist riot in Charlottesville, and Trump’s “very fine people” support of racist violence.
Rep. Raskin doing a good job of showing how other actions, and in particular Trump’s actions in Michigan, showed that he completely understood how to incite violence, and knew that he could generate violence on demand.
Raskin: “My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room, who believes if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way? Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?”
