House impeachment managers concluded their case against Donald Trump on Thursday by saying that the deadly Capitol assault he stands accused of inciting was the culmination of a presidency beset by lies and violent rhetoric. They also said he would remain a threat to US democracy if not convicted and barred from holding future office
Democrats rest case with warning that Trump remains a threat More
Joe Biden has criticised Donald Trump’s handling of the US Covid vaccination program after confirming the country had ordered an additional 200m vaccine doses to be delivered by the end of July. Speaking at the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, the president spoke of the efforts his team had gone through to ensure high vaccination numbers and criticised Trump’s strategy for distributing vaccines. ‘My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,’ Biden said. ‘He didn’t order enough vaccines. He didn’t mobilise enough people to administer the shots’
US finalizes order for 200m additional Covid-19 vaccine doses, Biden says More
House impeachment managers warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Representative Diana DeGette argued the vote to impeach would make sure this would never happen again.
The managers rested their case on the third day of the trial after presenting arguments for convicting Donald Trump.
US politics: latest updates More
In their prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol in Washington DC, Democratic impeachment managers have focused on videos of the event, including previously unseen footage.
The managers, who act as prosecutors in the case, have shown clips to their audience of senators, who are in effect acting as jurors.
The shocking footage shown on Wednesday revealed the full scale and danger of the attack on the Capitol, including threats to some senators who were now sitting in the chamber during the trial
Trump trial shown disturbing footage of lawmakers ‘hunted’ by Capitol mob
Five shocking videos from the Capitol attack shown at Trump’s impeachment trial More
New video shown during the second impeachment trial for Donald Trump has revealed Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman leading Senator Mitt Romney away from the rioters as well as the evacuation of former vice-president Mike Pence. Representative Stacey Plaskett presented the previously unreleased security footage from the 6 January Capitol breach documenting Romney’s close call as well as Pence and his family’s escape as rioters chanted ‘hang Mike Pence’
Trump trial shown disturbing footage of lawmakers ‘hunted’ by Capitol mob
New footage of Capitol riot shows Eugene Goodman rushing to save Mitt Romney – Trump impeachment live More
This is the full edited video montage from the Capitol insurrection that Democrats presented during Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial on 9 February 2021, as part of their evidence alleging the former president incited the mob More
The election arm of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has brought out its final report on the 2020 US presidential election, concluding that it was well organised under the circumstances and there was no significant fraud.The report also found that Donald Trump’s rhetoric and refusal to accept defeat undermined public faith in democratic institutions, and warned the US has long-term problems with providing equal voting rights for all.As is routine for OSCE member states, its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) sent a team out to observe the run-up, election day itself and the aftermath. Its report notes that voting infrastructure in the US is chronically underfunded, and the extra $400m disbursed to deal with the challenge of voting in a pandemic was insufficient.A total of 101 million Americans, 64% of all 2020 voters, cast an early ballot, but despite that unprecedented number, the report found that “early voting was generally well organised and implemented professionally”.“The number and scale of substantiated cases of fraud associated to absentee ballots were negligible,” it said.One of the main problems with the election and its aftermath, according to the findings, was the incumbent president.“On many occasions, President Trump created an impression of refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, claiming that the electoral process was systematically rigged,” the report said.“Such statements by an incumbent president weaken public confidence in state institutions and were perceived by many as increasing the potential for politically motivated violence after the elections.”The ODIHR report did not take an explicit view on Trump’s role in inciting the Capitol riot on 6 January and for which he was impeached a second time. But it noted that at his rally immediately beforehand, Trump “persisted in his accusations that the election had been stolen, urging his supporters to pressure representatives to overturn the counting of electoral college votes”.The ODIHR was most scathing about the state of voting rights in the US. It notes that after the supreme court invalidated key parts of the Voting Rights Act, “some states enacted laws which effectively compromised voting rights for some disadvantaged groups”.An estimated 5.2 million citizens are effectively disenfranchised due to a criminal conviction, even though half have served their sentences.The report concluded: “These restrictions on the voting rights of ex-felons and felons contravene principles of universal suffrage and the principle of proportionality in the restriction of rights, as provided for by OSCE commitments and other international standards.”The ODIHR made 38 recommendations on how to improve US democracy. It called on American politicians to stop using “inflammatory or discriminatory rhetoric”, and for all people with criminal convictions to have their voting rights restored on completion of their sentence.It also said US authorities should work on reducing the number of unregistered voters, by reducing “burdensome procedures and obstacles” to registration that have been erected in some states, draw up district boundaries on non-partisan principles, and review the electoral college system so that it confirms with the “principle of equality of the vote”. More
On the eve of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on a charge of inciting the deadly US Capitol attack, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority and minority leaders, have laid out the framework for the trial. ’All parties have agreed to a structure that will ensure a fair and honest Senate impeachment trial of the former president,’ Schumer said. Each side will have 16 hours to present their arguments and the trial will break on Friday afternoon and resume on Sunday afternoon
Trump impeachment: Schumer says agreement reached on rules for trial – live More
