House impeachment managers to begin presenting their case
Trump's second impeachment trial -- the first for a former president -- resumes Wednesday at noon with opening arguments from House impeachment managers who will begin making their case that Trump incited an insurrection.
They have up to 16 hours to convince 17 Republicans to join the Democrats in voting to convict Trump and bar him from federal office. To compel senators, and the American public, they are expected to use "never-seen-before" video footage of the attack, aides to the House impeachment managers said.

On Tuesday, the group, led by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., presented a 13-minute montage video of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, interspersed with Trump's remarks at the rally outside the White House, and argued acquitting Trump would allow a "January exception" to the Constitution not intended by the Framers.
Trump's defense team argued that the trial was unconstitutional because Trump is now a private citizen and that moving forward would encourage "snap impeachments." However, lead attorney, Bruce Castor, first setting the tone for the trial, spent most of his 48 minutes on the Senate floor meandering through topics that weren't related to the constitutional questions facing the Senate.

Trump, watching from Mar-a-Lago, was unhappy with Castor's performance, sources told ABC News.
After the first day's arguments, in an unexpected move, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., joined Democrats and five other Republicans in voting that the trial is constitutional, changing his vote from an earlier motion on the issue, citing the Democrats' "compelling argument."
John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other Republicans also criticized the performance of Trump's legal team, but the majority of Republicans, 44-56, voted not to move forward with the proceedings, signaling it's all but certain Democrats won't have the votes to convict Trump. At Trump's impeachment trial last year, only one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, voted with Democrats.







