Evidence could change minds
Pressure mounted yesterday on Republicans still backing Donald Trump after President Joe Biden said that harrowing video evidence of the January assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters may change "some minds" in the former president's impeachment trial.
So far, a large majority of Republicans have stood by Trump, who is accused of inciting insurrection January 6 when a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol and tried to stop certification of Biden's election victory.
That means a conviction, requiring a two-thirds majority in the Senate, is highly unlikely. Trump's lawyers will get their chance to speak as early as yesterday (US time) or today when Democratic impeachment mangers wrap up their case.
The Trump team argues that the former president cannot be personally blamed for the riot and that the entire trial is unconstitutional because he has already left office.
But Democratic impeachment managers delivered blistering evidence Wednesday in the form of hours of video from security cameras, police bodycams, news footage and cell phone video shot by the rioters themselves.
The mayhem left five people dead.
The January 6 riot broke out after Trump held a rally to repeat his lie that Biden had only won due to vote rigging and that his vice president, Mike Pence, had to find a way to stop certification of the result.
Pence, who had already stated he had no legal authority to stop certification, then became a target of the crowds' wrath. Video shows demonstrators screaming insults and declaring Pence a traitor.
Though some republicans expressed shock seeing the evidences, still, it is highly unlikely Trump will be convicted as it requires a two-thirds majority, meaning 17 Republicans would need to go along with the 50 Democrats.
Unlike Trump's first impeachment trial a year ago, which took three weeks, this one is expected to be over within days.
Meanwhile Reuters reported that dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to Trump and his attempts to undermine US democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions told Reuters.
More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday, Reuters report said. The plan would be to run candidates in some races but also to endorse center-right candidates in others, be they Republicans, independents or Democrats, it added.
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