impeachment round 2
Trump's impeachment defense wraps up after less than 3 hours
Former President Donald Trump's impeachment defense has already wrapped up.
Trump's lawyers on Friday afternoon concluded their arguments in the former president's impeachment trial about three hours after they began, ultimately only using two-and-a-half hours to make their case when discounting a break.
Both sides in the impeachment trial were allotted 16 hours over two days for their arguments. While neither used the full amount of time, House impeachment managers made their arguments over the course of two days on Wednesday and Thursday.
Trump's defense during the fourth day of the trial made the case that his remarks before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were protected political speech, and they repeatedly played clips they argued showed that Democrats have made similar statements. Some of these videos were played more than once throughout the presentation.
While wrapping up the arguments, attorney Bruce Castor told lawmakers "we will not take most of our time today" in "the hopes that you will take back these hours and use them to get delivery of COVID relief to the American people." The next step, according to CBS, will be four hours of questions, but the trial now looks to be on track to potentially wrap up with a vote on Saturday.
Trump is highly likely to be acquitted of the charges, which could explain why his defense didn't feel the need to use even half of its allotted time.
"Rule #1 of politics is when you have the votes, you vote and when you don't, you talk," Bloomberg's Steven Dennis wrote. "Explains why defense was so short: They think they have the votes."