Round Two | Aerin Flaharty

On Wednesday, January 20th, 2021, Joe Biden began his journey in office as the 46th President of the United States. But just a week prior, on January 13th, former President Trump was impeached again, making history as the only President to be tried for impeachment twice. A week before this, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. capitol in rage of the November 2020 election results, harming the lives of those inside and out of the building, and infuriating the nation. Days following, previous Vice President Mike Pence was called upon to invoke upon the 25th amendment, and serve as President for the remainder of Donald’s time, in which he declined. Now, only about three weeks into President Biden’s time in office, Americans wait for the round two of Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial.

Trump was impeached by the house of representatives for the first time on December 18th, 2019 on accounts for abuse of power and obstruction of justice. Less than two years later, he’s being accused again. Following the invasion of the U.S capitol, the former president has been charged with “incitement of insurrection” after his remarks and actions succeeding the violence that occured. As of now, house impeachment managers are attempting to hold Trump accountable for the riots and more importantly, the way he handled the events.

So what happens now? The senate will meet and start the second impeachment trials today. So far, Trump’s legal team is defending his first amendment rights for his verbal doubt on the votes cast in the 2020 election, as well as an “unconstitutional impeachment trial” since he no longer holds office. However, the house wants to grill him for misleading comments circulating election votes, encouragement of the riots, and his many power violations while in office. If truly impeached, Donald Trump will be banned from ever holding office ever again.

The trials start today, February 9th at 12pm eastern standard time. Impeachment managers are attempting to prove Trump’s actions while in office caused more harm to America than good, while his team of attorneys will defend him by claiming the trial should not be in order in the first place, due to the fact that he no longer holds office. However, the trials will go on, and are estimated to last for a couple of days. If Trump is “convicted” of impeachment, he will face removal of office, which won’t matter since he’s out of time. But if Trump is acquitted in his case, he will not be allowed to run for President, or any form of office again. Two-thirds of the senate votes are needed in order to have Trump acquitted.

While it is unknown what the outcome of this trial will be, and how long it will take, one thing is for sure: we are living through significant history. Never before has a President been impeached twice, so Americans will just have to sit back, watch and wait to see what happens next.