Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate floor in Washington, DC, the US, January 21 2020. Picture: DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES/AFP
With the television cameras rolling, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts convened the proceedings and the two sides began squabbling over Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules for the trial. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday offered an amendment to subpoena White House documents related to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine and vowed to push for the further witness testimony.
“We discussed it at lunch. It was pretty much a conference consensus that that made a lot more sense,” Republican Senator Ron Johnson said. Even if such a motion fails, Trump is almost certain to be acquitted by the 100-member chamber, where a two-thirds majority is needed to remove him from office.Democrats accuse Trump of pressuring Ukraine, a vulnerable ally, to interfere in US elections at the expense of American national security and say he is a danger to American democracy.
The Senate trial is expected to continue six days a week, Monday through Saturday, until at least the end of January. The impeachment drama has consumed much of Trump’s attention even as the US faces a series of international challenges, including tensions with Iran that nearly boiled over into open war and an on-again, off-again trade war with China.