Trump impeachment trial
Watch highlights from Day 2 of Trump's impeachment trial, in which Democrats begin their prosecution
The House impeachment managers, or prosecutors in President Trump's impeachment trial, used the first 7 hours and 17 minutes of their allotted 24 hours for opening statements on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis, and the lion's share of speaking time went to the lead prosecutor, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
"Schiff offered a sweeping survey of the case that leaned hard into themes designed to resonate with national-security-minded Republicans," The New Yorker's Susan Glasser recapped. Overall, "the House managers made a polished, impassioned stab at convincing their audience, dramatizing their case with an attention-grabbing presentation (designed to keep the senators awake, perhaps?) that included video clips from Trump; his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney; and many of the key witnesses from the House's televised impeachment proceedings. It was a sort of greatest hits of the Trump-Ukraine scandal, a primer for senators."
Much of it was familiar territory for people who followed the House impeachment hearings closely," Glasser writes, "but it was frequently eloquent, appalling, and dramatic to hear the alarming facts of the case laid out all over again." For anyone who didn't watch all seven-plus hours — and that includes some of the senator-jurors — PBS NewsHour compiled some highlights:
Not everyone was wowed by Schiff's "silver-tongued" speechifying, as Glasser phrased it — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), for example, tweeted "the more we hear from Adam Schiff, the more the GOP is getting unified against this partisan charade," earning at "True!" reply from Trump — but his presentation got generally high marks. On CNN, legal analysts Jeffrey Toobin pronounced it "dazzling."
You can watch Schiff's full closing remarks on Day 2 of Trump's impeachment trial below, including his final call to courage for Republican senators. Peter Weber