Summary
- Democrats are resuming their case against Donald Trump in the US Senate on the third day of the former president’s second impeachment hearing.
- Senators are being asked to convict Trump of inciting insurrection via his comments and tweets prior to a violent mob of his supporters storming the Capitol on January 6.
- The Democrats have made extensive use of previously unseen and graphic security footage during the trial.
- Trump is expected to be acquitted because conviction requires two-thirds of senators to vote in favour, and the Senate is made up of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
- Trump-supporting Republicans have remained unswayed by the evidence presented to date.
Impeachment hearing has resumed
The Senate is now sitting and the impeachment hearing is back in session.
House impeachment manager Diana DeGette is presenting evidence to show that the rioters believed that their violent actions were for Donald Trump.
DeGette was in the Capitol building on January 6 and is recalling the terror and evacuation of the building.
Police point a gun at a rioter in the US Capitol building on January 6.Credit:Senate Television
She showed a photograph of what she saw as she was evacuated from the building.
“This is what I saw, the SWAT team pointing automatic weapons at marauders on the floor,” she said.
“Looking at these people makes you wonder, who sent them here?”
DeGette says she will show evidence from a completely different perspective – that of the insurrectionists.
She says the reason so many of them posted images and video online of them participating in the illegal violence was that they believed they were doing so on the president’s behalf.
“They actually believed they would face no punishment,” DeGette told senators.
Trump’s own words proved most damning
The most compelling aspect of the Democrats’ case against Donald Trump was just how forensically they laid out the former president’s own words, tweets and messages to his supporters and the latter’s subsequent actions.
Read more: Trial highlights: Harrowing footage, focus on Trump’s words
It was in stark contrast to the rambling and incoherent performance of Trump’s own lawyers on day one of the proceedings, as they failed to stop the impeachment hearing in its tracks.
Below you can watch back some of the most dramatic footage presented to jurors:
The House impeachment managers are led to the Senate.Credit:AP
The Democrats have a total 16 hours to present their evidence and used less than half of that on day two of proceedings. That’s likely to be the case again on day three.
Trump’s lawyers have been allocated 16 hours to mount their defence.
Did the evidence sway Republicans?
In short, no.
Two-thirds of the Senate is required to convict the former president and that number has always appeared unlikely, especially after 46 of the 50 Republicans voted that the hearing was unconstitutional on Tuesday.
Senator Lindsey Graham.Credit:Bloomberg
Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News that the “not guilty vote is growing” as a result of the Democrats’ evidence.
“Most Republicans found the presentation by the House managers offensive, and absurd,” he said.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio also told Fox News that while the attack was “horrifying,” impeachment was not appropriate given that Trump was no longer in office.
Day three of Trump’s impeachment hearing to begin
Hello and welcome to our rolling coverage of Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing.
I’m Latika Bourke and I’ll be taking you through day three of the Senate hearing, which kicks off around noon local time, or 4am AEDT.
Day one was consumed by legal arguments about whether it was even constitutional to try the former president. Six Republicans combined with the Democrats to rule that the impeachment was constitutional and could proceed.
One of many slides presented by Democrats prosecuting the second impeachment of Donald Trump.Credit:SenateTV/AP
Day two proved explosive as the Democrats laid out their case against Trump, accusing him of inciting the January 6 riot on the Capitol and directly linking his words with the violent and deadly consequences of that day.
They presented never-before-seen footage recorded by security cameras inside the building that showed the full scale of the terror, chaos and violence.
Also played were panicked radio messages between police, as well as audio of Nancy Pelosi’s staffers as they hid from the rioters rampaging the building. The rioters were hunting for the House Speaker whom they called “crazy Nancy” – the same nickname used by Donald Trump.
The images showed just how close several high-profile US politicians, including Pelosi, the vice-president Mike Pence, Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitt Romney came to the mob.
Read more from our Washington correspondent Matthew Knott: ‘Inciter-in-chief’: Democrats launch impeachment trial case against Trump
Recap our live coverage from Thursday: Trump impeachment as it happened: Trial adjourned as former US president probed over inciting Capitol Hill riot
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