周四，众议院民主党人在唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的第二次弹劾审判中结束了他们的开场辩论，他们强调了特朗普对1月6日骚乱的缓慢反应和他对袭击事件缺乏悔意，以及骚乱暴露了美国国内和世界其他地方政府系统的弱点。
民主党人也警告参议院，如果特朗普不被定罪，将构成持久的危险，他们的表现再次受到共和党人的赞扬。但他们似乎仍然缺乏给特朗普定罪所需的共和党支持，因为前总统的律师准备在周五进行辩护。
以下是周四会议的五个要点。
用他们自己的话来说:DEMS说暴徒受到了特朗普的鼓励
周三，在众议院进行了一天的情绪激动和灼热的时刻后，民主党人播放了从未有过的国会大厦暴乱的镜头，经理们在参议院面前争辩说，许多参与者用特朗普自己的话来为他们的行动辩护，并声称他邀请了他们的攻击。
他们还指出特朗普对白人至上主义者夏洛茨维尔在2017年，他对密歇根州州长格雷琴·惠特默的冠状病毒限制的批评导致示范在州议会大厦。
“这是即将到来的起义的预演，”医学博士杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)周四表示。
科罗拉多州民主党众议员戴安娜·德杰特(Diana DeGette)指着新墨西哥州当地政府官员库伊·格里芬(Couy Griffin)，他创建了“特朗普牛仔”组织，并袭击了国会大厦——他后来在乔·拜登就职典礼前几天在国会大厦附近被捕。
格里芬在暴乱后的脸书视频中说，在拜登就职期间，国会大厦将会“血流成河”。去年，特朗普转发了格里芬的一段视频，说“唯一好的民主党人是一个死去的民主党人”，并在2019年与格里芬通了电话。
“他们真的认为整个入侵是总统的命令，我们知道，因为他们这样说，”德杰特说。“他们中的许多人实际上是在拍照，在社交媒体上吹嘘这件事，并在推特上给特朗普贴标签。”
“这不是隐藏的罪行。总统告诉他们要去，所以他们实际上相信他们不会面临惩罚，”她说，经理们播放了特朗普1月6日在白宫外集会的视频，与会者在视频中喊道，“入侵国会大厦！”
过道对面的呼吁
连续第二天，民主党人利用暴徒对副总统迈克·彭斯的威胁来争取共和党人对定罪的支持。
他们还播放了一张幻灯片，展示了共和党州长和议员谴责骚乱和特朗普在骚乱发生时的不作为——从马里兰州州长拉里·霍根(Larry Hogan)到共和党众议员亚当·金辛格(Adam Kinzinger)和约翰·卡特科(John Katko)，他们都在众议院与其他八名共和党人一起投票弹劾特朗普。
经理引用…的话特朗普的前幕僚长约翰·凯利(John Kelly)表示，特朗普对选民欺诈的未经证实的指控“毒害了美国人的思想”，他还列出了在骚乱后辞职的政府官员名单。
民主党众议员大卫·西奇林(David Cicilline)也详细描述了国会大厦警察在国会大厦外面临的骚扰，暴徒称他们为“叛徒”和各种淫秽物品。
“支持蓝线就到此为止，”西西林说，指的是特朗普和共和党对执法的大力支持。
“这些人很重要。这些人为我们冒着生命危险，”他说。
民主党人捍卫审判的合宪性，诉诸“常识”
管理人员针对共和党人对其案件最常见的批评之一——参议院给前总统定罪是不符合宪法的。
拉斯金认为，参议院应该跳过这个“无聊”的问题，在周二进行辩论后，六名共和党人与所有民主党人一起投票进行审判。
“这与陪审团对案件事实的考虑无关，”他说。
相反，他要求特朗普的团队回答其他几个问题。
“如果一位总统真的邀请了一场针对我们政府的暴力暴动，那会是重罪和轻罪吗？我们能达成一致吗，至少在这一点上？”拉斯金问。
拉斯金预计特朗普的律师将在周一的简报中首次提出另一个论点，他反驳了特朗普1月6日对支持者的言论应被视为言论自由的观点。
“宪法第一修正案或其他任何地方都没有任何东西可以为你背叛自己的誓言开脱。这不是一个言论自由的问题，”拉斯金在引用了已故保守派最高法院法官安东宁·斯卡利亚关于言论自由案件的文章后说。
他继续说，特朗普的话“代表了一名政府官员对我们的宪法，包括第一修正案，在人们的记忆中最具破坏性和危险的攻击。”
拉斯金援引托马斯·潘恩的话，鼓励参议员们“运用”他们对1月6日发生的事情的“常识”
“我们需要对发生的事情运用我们的常识。他说:“我们不要陷入许多稀奇古怪的律师理论。”
美国的海外形象
德克萨斯州众议员华金·卡斯特罗(Joaquin Castro)认为，1月6日的骚乱损害了美国的国家安全和该国的海外地位，为管理人员周四在参议院的陈述引入了一个新的元素。
“每一个考虑攻击这座建筑的外国对手都必须观看彩排，他们看到这座国会大厦可能会被超越，”众议院情报和外交事务委员会成员卡斯特罗说。
卡斯特罗援引执法部门的指控文件指出，至少有一名暴徒从议长南希·佩洛西的办公室偷走了一台笔记本电脑，并计划将该电脑出售给俄罗斯情报机构。
他说，这次袭击还影响了美国在其他国家的信誉，以及在世界各地促进民主的能力。
卡斯特罗说:“特朗普总统给了中国政府一个机会，在抗议民主的香港人和试图推翻民主的暴力叛乱分子之间制造虚假的对等关系。”。
这一论点使民主党人本周偏离了他们案件的中心主题，但它表明了在国家安全和外交政策的两党地盘上与共和党人达成共识的又一次尝试。
眼睛盯着时钟
俄克拉荷马州参议员吉姆·殷霍夫周四下午对记者发表讲话，总结了几名共和党人在经理们辩论的第三天的情绪。
“对我来说，他们越说越不可信，”他说。
尽管拉斯金和民主党人留出了时间——他们最终没有利用分配给他们的最多16个小时中的大约5个小时——但一些议员建议，在情绪激动的第二天辩论之后，诉讼应该进行得更快。
马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦。告诉记者，经理们不需要传唤证人——在特朗普的团队为他的案件进行辩论和四个小时的询问后，参议院可以对证人进行投票。
“我感到满意的是，众议院的经理们提出了他们的理由，”她说。
特朗普的法律团队由律师布鲁斯·卡斯特(Bruce Castor)和大卫·舍恩(David Schoen)领导，他们只计划在周五用几个小时为特朗普辩护。
“我认为弹劾审判的最终结果对每个人来说都是非常清楚的，”德克萨斯州参议员特德·克鲁兹在会见特朗普的律师后告诉记者。
舍恩周四在福克斯新闻(Fox News)的庭审中表示，庭审应“尽可能短”，并暗示他的团队将辩称特朗普与骚乱无关，此前民主党人花了几天时间辩称，他已经用自己的言论和行动奠定了数月的基础。
“我们没有理由在那里呆很长时间，”他在福克斯新闻上说。
Day 3 key takeaways from Trump's 2nd impeachment trial
House Democrats wrapped up their opening arguments in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial Thursday by honing on Trump’s slow response to the Jan. 6 riot and his lack of remorse about the attack – and the weaknesses the riot revealed in America’s system of government at home, and to the rest of the world.
Democrats, who also warned the Senate about the lasting danger Trump would pose if not convicted, were again praised by Republicans for their performance. But they still appear to be short of the Republican support needed to convict Trump, as the former president’s lawyers prepare to mount their defense on Friday.
Here are five key takeaways from Thursday’s proceedings.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS: DEMS SAY RIOTERS FELT ENCOURAGED BY TRUMP
After a day of emotional and searing moments on the House floor Wednesday as Democrats played never-before-seen footage of the Capitol riot, managers argued before the Senate that many participants pointed to Trump’s own words to defend their actions, and claimed he had invited their attack.
They also pointed to Trump’s praise for white supremacists inCharlottesville in 2017, and his criticism of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s coronavirus restrictions that led to demonstrations at the state capitol.
“It was a preview of the coming insurrection,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Thursday.
Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., pointed to Couy Griffin, a local government official in New Mexico who founded the group “Cowboys for Trump” and stormed the Capitol – who was later arrested near the Capitol just days before Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Griffin said in a Facebook video after the riot that there would be “blood running” from the Capitol during Biden’s inauguration. Last year, Trump retweeted a video of Griffin saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,” and spoke to Griffin on the phone in 2019.
“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders, and we know that because they said so,” DeGette said. “Many of them actually posed for pictures, bragging about it on social media, and they tagged Mr. Trump in tweets.”
“This was not a hidden crime. The president told them to be there, and so they actually believed they would face no punishment,” she said, as managers played video of Trump’s rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, where attendees shouted, “invade the Capitol!”
AN APPEAL ACROSS THE AISLE
For the second day in a row, Democrats used the threat rioters posed to Vice President Mike Pence in an effort to court Republican support for conviction.
They also played a slideshow of Republican governors and lawmakers condemning the riot and Trump’s inaction as it unfolded – from Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, to GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and John Katko, who both voted with eight other Republicans to impeach Trump in the House.
Managers cited the words of Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly – who said Trump “poisoned the minds” of Americans with his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud - as well as the list of administration officials who resigned in the aftermath of the riot.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., also detailed the harassment Capitol Police officers faced outside the Capitol, where rioters called them “traitors” and various obscenities.
“So much for backing the blue,” Cicilline said, in reference to Trump and the Republican Party’s vocal support for law enforcement.
“These people matter. These people risked their lives for us,” he said.
DEMOCRATS DEFEND CONSTITUTIONALITY OF TRIAL, APPEAL TO 'COMMON SENSE'
Managers took aim at one of the Republicans’ most frequent criticisms of their case – that it’s not constitutional for the Senate to convict a former president.
Raskin argued that the Senate should move past that “frivolous” question, after it was debated on Tuesday, and six Republicans voted with all Democrats to proceed with the trial.
“It's not relevant to the jury's consideration of the facts of the case,” he said.
Instead, he challenged Trump’s team to answer several other questions.
“If a president did invite a violent insurrection against our government, would that be a high crime and misdemeanor? Can we all agree, at least on that?" Raskin asked.
Anticipating another argument from Trump’s lawyers first raised in a Monday brief, Raskin pushed back on the notion that Trump’s Jan. 6 comments to supporters should be considered free speech.
“There's nothing in the First Amendment or anywhere else in the Constitution that can excuse your betrayal of your oath of office. It's not a free speech question,” Raskin said, after citing the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s writing on free speech cases.
Trump’s words, he continued, “represented the most devastating and dangerous assault by a government official on our Constitution, including the First Amendment, in living memory.”
Invoking Thomas Paine, Raskin encouraged senators to "exercise" their "common sense" about what happened on Jan. 6
“We need to exercise our common sense about what happened. Let's not get caught up in a lot of outlandish lawyers' theories here," he said.
AMERICA’S IMAGE ABROAD
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, argued that the Jan. 6 riot damaged U.S. national security and the country’s standing abroad, introducing a new element to managers’ presentation to the Senate on Thursday.
“Every foreign adversary considering attacking this building got to watch a dress rehearsal, and they saw that this Capitol could be overtaken,” Castro, a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees, said.
At least one rioter who stole a laptop from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office planned to sell the computer to Russian intelligence, Castro noted, citing law enforcement charging documents.
The attack has also impacted America’s credibility with other countries, and ability to promote democracy around the world, he said.
“President Trump gave the Chinese government an opening to create a false equivalency between Hong Kongers protesting for democracy and violent insurrectionists trying to overthrow it," Castro said.
The line of argument took Democrats away from the central themes of their case this week, but it suggested another attempt to reach Republicans on the bipartisan turf of national security and foreign policy.
EYES ON THE CLOCK
Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., summed up the sentiments of several Republicans on the third day of managers’ arguments.
“To me, they’re losing credibility the longer they talk,” he said.
Even though Raskin and Democrats left time on the table – they ended up not using roughly five hours of the up to 16 hours allotted to them – some lawmakers suggested proceedings should be moving even faster, after the emotionally-charged second day of arguments.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told reporters that the managers didn’t need to call witnesses – which the Senate could vote on after Trump’s team argues his case, and four hours of questioning.
“I feel satisfied that the House managers have made their case,” she said.
Trump’s legal team, led by attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen, only plan to use a handful of hours Friday to argue Trump’s case.
"I think the end result of this impeachment trial is crystal clear to everybody,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told reporters after meeting with Trump’s attorneys.
Schoen, in a Fox News appearance during the trial Thursday, said the trial should be “as short as possible” and signaled that his team would argue that Trump had nothing to do with the riot after Democrats spent days arguing he had laid the groundwork for months with his words and actions.
“There is no reason for us to be out there a long time,” he said on Fox News.
