as we did is a disgraceful dereliction of duty a desertion of his office and he made a series of statements that we didn't even make saying that this was not over yet by a long shot essentially and that there was the path of criminal prosecution for the former president the disc race to now twice impeached former president so the bottom line is that we convinced a big majority in the senate of our case i'm very proud of the exceptional hard work of these managers who worked through the night many nights over several weeks to make this case to the senate and to the union. as to i just want to say you know one word about the whole thing about witnesses we were able to get. treated as. they as live

under oath testimony the statement of our colleague congresswoman jami herrera bubbler we were able to get a stipulation to that and get it into evidence today by asking for her as a witness if you listen to mitch mcconnell and the republicans who are now hurriedly explaining why they voted not to convict all of them are hinting at on a legal argument. jurisdictional or some other legal argument that could never be overcome by any number of witnesses we could have had 5000 witnesses and mitch mcconnell would be making the same speech because what he's asserting is that the senate never has jurisdiction over a former president and for reasons i don't need to belabor because a big part of the trial is about this we reject that completely it's totally at odds with our history the blunt case the belknap case the text of the constitution the original intent of the constitution the original understanding of the

constitution the senate's own precedents and so on but in any event the point is that no number of witnesses demonstrating that donald trump continued to incite the insurrection as even after the invasion of the capital would convince them they wouldn't be convinced they were hinting on a matter of law which we thought we had settled back on tuesday of course when the senate elected to exercise jurisdiction and to reject that jurisdictional constitutional argument. but it is what it is mitch mcconnell clearly feels that donald trump remains a huge problem for the republican party even if he has been described in the eyes of the country and that is not my jurisdiction and i really don't have anything to say about that i think you know they will have to deal with the political dynamics within their own within their own party so. we did get we did

get donald trump at least admit that he's a former president now so that's good news he's not asserting that somehow he's still president and they're recognizing at least in a defacto sense the legitimacy of this presidential election which of course president biden won by more than 7000000 votes and by a margin of 30622323 or 6 to 232 in the electoral college with that i will close my remarks and the questions are open for any of us and i'm going to share the podium with my distinguished colleagues or to just one of us from. so what are we. yes i. said why don't. you know. all right something else want to take

a shot at that i thought i addressed that but anybody else want to yes please does this we heard from this from the minority leader mitch mcconnell that we have proven the case he said specifically the house managers have proven the facts of the case and before we started. yesterday we mill when we rested we rested with overwhelming evidence as to the facts of this case these all jurors were also witnesses to the crime they knew specifically what was happening and then there were you know we found additional information about herrera butler which we on yesterday evening. that we decided that we were going to go after and we got it we got that information to further amplify what we had already proven there in court there is no other additional witnesses that we were friendly to us that were

not there on the screen the body cameras of the capitol police officers how much more resonance with that had given to them than the actual seeing the day of the insurrection individuals that others would have us would have liked to have called like the president who we invited is in fact the defendant and does not have to testify other individuals who may have been there with the president were not friendly witness to us and would have required subpoenas and months of litigation they are still litigator mcgann impeachment one a year later and so we believe that we have shown that this president is a disgrace to our country mitch mcconnell himself said that these senators have decided to hang their hat on jurisdictional grounds which are not based on evidence which are not based on the facts and they will have to be judged for that we have done our duty to the american people.

well let me introduce a speaker close in our community i'm sorry. i had not been my intention to come to this press availability. or tempting it would be to sing the praises of our house managers on behalf not only of the house of representatives on behalf of the american people and i have to say personally on behalf of my grandchildren who do great hope and inspiration from each and every one of you we could not be prouder. the your patriotic presentations the clarity i'm with you presented and again. the inspiration that you have been to so many people so i thank you for that when i see all of them it reminds me that when we recruit candidates to run for office or we see

themselves for a crude ng we always say they'll say well i could be the president of my university or i could be the head of my hospital department or this is that not so i have to think about whether i run for congress we always say we don't want anybody with out of actions that's why we're looking to you to run because you have options that shouldn't be a reason for you not to run but what we saw in that senate today was a cowardly group of republicans who patently have no options of because they were afraid to defend their job respect the institution in which they served imagine that it would be vandalized in so many bad ways that it won't even go into here and that they would not respect their institute that the president of the senate mike pence hang mike pence was the chant

and they just dismissed that why because maybe they can't get another job what is so important about any one of us what is so important about the political survival of any one of us that is more important than our constitution that we take an oath to protect and defend but why i came over was because i listened to mitch mcconnell mitch mcconnell who won this distinguished. group of house managers were gathered on january 15th to deliver the articles of impeachment could not were told it could not be received because mitch mcconnell had to shut down the senate and was going to keep it shut down until right until the inauguration so for him to get out there and make this

indictment against the president and then say but i can't i can't vote for it because it's after the fact that's fact that he established the fact that he established that it could not be delivered before the inauguration now when you think about january 6th between january 6th and 323 aren't talking about just under 2 weeks a day under 2 weeks so. the big lies as stop the steal the big law that you talked about stop the steel was the momentum for getting these people there on the 6 they honestly believe for whatever reason maybe too much social media whatever watch social media that movie. why were they were thinking that that was true that the lection was not legitimate whatever the reason the president told so ok so that's

a 6 week later we impeach in the house thank you to those of you who participated right away then we raskin. ted lew and david cicilline the list and david cicilline if they were they had it all written up and ready to go bipartisan lady passed the house and then 2 days later ready with the case to take to the senate we can receive it not a question and by the last those who receive it in the next day start the trial so for mitch mcconnell. who created the situation where it could not have been heard before the 20th or even begun before the 20th in the senate to say all the things he said oh my gosh about donald trump and how horrible he was and is and then said but

the time at the time that the democrats the house chose to bring it over no we didn't choose you chose not to receive it so i think that's really important and again it doesn't matter as jamie and others have told us you can have the case after the person is out of office so it's an elementary discussion the congress senate rules in that way and try and honor your precedent on this wasn't it didn't matter except it was not the reason that he voted the way he did it was the excuse that he used and so that's why i think it's important because that was a very important speech i thought chuck schumer's speech was remarkable and laying it all out i think he was inspired by all of you because you look raise the level

of all this to such a place of patriotism a knowledge of our country our history and what we owe our children again we always say honoring the vision of our founders worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and respecting the aspirations of our children they did all of that and as james the distinguished. manager said earlier on this presidential weekend. our sense of taste of patriotism is stirred and we're called upon the stronger someone to thank them i want to talk safely prosecutes thank you stacey thank you madeleine thank you very much jonah gross thank you eric swalwell thank you started to get thank you that it's a selena thank you ted lou thank you walking castro thank you very much mr

lead manage your own all of this we just couldn't be prouder i've been hearing from my grandchildren who are very sad that justice wasn't done but by 15 votes the senate voted. to convict a good bipartisan statement about what has happened it would not have been accomplished without your brilliant presentation so i thank you for that and i yield the floor glad to all of us thank you thank you for the middle name speaker thank you for your confidence and as i was going to go next to scott we're going to take the next one to. ok scott.

he even hedged on that never want to talk about when he talked about incitement you shouldn't think this rose to the level. of so he was hedging all over the place i don't know whether it was for dole nurse or or what for whatever it was it was a very disingenuous speech and i say that regretfully because i always want to be able to work. work with the leadership of the other party i think a country needs a strong republican party it's very important and for him to have tried to have it every which way but we will be going forward to make sure that this never happens again and terms of what were the to investigate and evaluate what caused it and both in terms of it the motivation but also and terms of the security that we have to have as we go forth recognizing how inflaming even some of our left of

social a can be but i deferred all resisted would you worry that they're. all right let's say so because you're there for her you're not come here i'm certain you're not going to write you. if you let everybody. let everybody off the hook all these cowardly sounders who couldn't face up to what the president did and what was the stake for our country are now going to have a chance to give a little hop on the wrist we factor people for using stationary for the long term we don't censor people for inciting insurrection that kills people in the capital. you know. i'm yes.

or no. you know what i mean. i don't want to. we tried this case as aggressively as we could on the law and on the facts we did everything that we could we got from the president's lawyers exactly what we wanted which was the entering into the evidentiary record of the statement by our colleague congresswoman butler and we got that i was able to read it before the entire country and it became part of the case and it became an order so listening here to house impeachment managers speaking at a press conference after the senate voted to acquit donald trump for inciting the insurrection on the u.s.

capitol on january 6th really seizing on those remarks by republican senator mitch mcconnell and which he reiterated much of the argument made by democrats about donald trump's role in the capitol attack. house speaker nancy pelosi was particularly in sense she said that those comments by mitch mcconnell were disingenuous that he couldn't have it both ways in terms of condemning donald trump for causing the insurrection but at the same time acquitting him so a great deal of frustration expressed there by the democrats let's now speak to alan fischer because of course he's been following all of this and the jamie raskin still holding that press conference there allan i guess it wasn't obviously it wasn't a result that the prosecution wanted but they knew all along that the strength of their case and their evidence was it was never going to change the outcome it wasn't

a sway them in jars the republican senators. and that played into the decision to back down from the idea of calling witnesses certainly can hear the frustration that's there with mitch mcconnell a man who of course refused to let the senate consider the impeachment articles until after the january 20th when donald trump would leave office and then complain that the house of representatives didn't get the articles of impeachment to the senate in time essentially saying that they prove their case but at the couldn't vote to convict him because it was unconstitutional because by that point donald trump had left office so you can hear the frustration among the democrats that the that they're putting forward this argument seem to have won the argument with people like mitch mcconnell and people like rob portman as well who is a senator from ohio who voted to acquit but he's saying because he didn't believe it was constitutional which we flagged up as being a potential screen that those who vote no would be able to get to use in the days

ahead when it comes to the idea of bringing in witnesses that was something that was surprisingly floated by the democrats at the start of proceedings on saturday there was a vote the senate agreed to lower it there was then a recess as they discussed how that would work the democrats then backed down and said that they weren't going to call those witnesses but they would enter statements made into the record jimmy raskin just explaining the reason we decided to back down is that we were not going to change anyone's mind too many senators that already decided this wasn't constitutional any of the evidence that we produced wasn't going to give them the $67.00 votes that they needed certainly jimmy raskin made some very strong points in his summing up all the evidence which took less than the 2 hours that had been allocated he talked about how this wasn't about donald trump this here senators to meet the moment and telling them that history will judge the mantle indian who is also another one of the impeachment

managers made the point that history has. does and we shouldn't look the other way well there was a record number of votes for impeachment 57 votes no remember 3 presidents have been impeached in the past one of them has been. don't trump about a year ago. never has there been so many votes to impeach a president but as jimmy ruskin pointed out it fell short of the requirement in the constitution which is a 2 thirds majority in the senate if you remember the u.s. senate is 100 seats so you need 67 votes they got 57 votes 7 of those from republicans who are known many was justifying what they did and some are already coming in for criticism from their own state parties for voting against trump. as you say jamie raskin arguing there that just defending the decision not to call witnesses which has faced some criticism by saying that it would let you say it

would have made a difference anyway if the perception was that the senate didn't have jurisdiction to hold this trial in the 1st place allen but it was that what was the what was your feeling about the republican response to this was that a decision not to call witnesses seen as a victory for them. it was certainly seen as a victory for donald trump i'm told that the people around don't tom were absolutely delighted it would have meant extending the period of this trial probably by 3 maybe 4 days possibly even as much as a week and the. democrats are aware that joe biden has a legislative agenda he wants to to push through he still has to get a number of cabinet positions confirmed he wants to put a 1.9 trillion dollar bill for covert relief through the house and through the senate he also wants to discuss immigration so there's a great deal to do there and of course that the opportunity for that when you have legislative goodwill is very short indeed so he wanted to make sure that this was

over and done with it as quickly as possible certainly the defense made the point that this was the in the interview all inspired by the hatred of donald trump that this was an attack on the former president something that the democrats have been planning for some considerable time and they suggested that the whole process was indeed on constitutional and the case that should never be brought to the senate. they have carried out a grossly unconstitutional effort to punish mr trump for protected 1st amendment speech it's an egregious violation of his constitutional rights since a 100 not a single word encouraging violence this action can only be seen as an effort to censor disfavored political speech and discriminate against disapprove viewpoint it is an unprecedented action with the potential to do

grave and lasting damage to both the presidency and the separation of powers and the future of democratic self-government. i mean really such different approaches obviously taken by the defense and the prosecution. the defense really focusing one point on the specifics of what took place and then from the democrats really the broader context to all of this was jamie raskin saying that if that according tromping a failure to convict him would be of great historical significance it would be very damaging to the future of the country. what is interesting is that susan collins is one of the republicans who voted to convict donald trump said after the last impeachment hearing look i think he's learned his lesson and she's just stood up in the senate chamber and said well obviously he didn't. clearly this there's

a split know in the republican party that the people who have expressed loyalty to donald trump there are many people who made the decision to vote against convicting donald trump because they want the trump supporters to back them in 4 years time when they run for president the likes of joe sholay ted cruz and marco rubio but interestingly enough marco rubio might well be rewarded for his loyalty by finding that he is a primary opponent in florida and the primary opponent according to some of the speculation and certainly well informed speculation could be a trump donald trump's daughter standing up against marco rubio because his seat is up for grabs in 2022 so there's the split between the very much the pro trampling of the party and won't be seen as the establishment when you have people like mitt romney former republican presidential candidate there who's now a senator in uta you have susan collins lisa murkowski ben sasse from nebraska who has been already criticized by his party for voting against donald trump and then

one of the surprises was was bill cassidy from louisiana who would be considered to be a trump supporter i suppose because he's backed a number of the measures that don't transfer it to the house but to vote against him was was quite a surprise so there is the establishment wing in the donald trump wing and no the 2 of them will have to live on comfortably as they head towards 2024 but just talking about 2024 for a moment. because he wasn't convicted here donald trump is not excluded from running for office again and there has been talk that he may well run for the presidency in 2024 his opponent his supporters say he will run and he will win he will become the 40. 5th and the 47th president there's no reason why he can't run but what the democrats have done even though they haven't proven money is to convict him here but with mitch mcconnell saying the prove the case they have managed to tag what happened here on capitol hill on the 6th of january to donald

trump not just no but for all time so in 4 years time when he runs it will be interesting to see if any of the names i just mentioned like holy cruise and rubio turn round to donald trump on the republican candidate put presidential debate stage and start seeing what happened on the 6th of january you inspire the crowd because that could happen it's it's an incredible place america at the moment and has been for a long time says donald trump got involved in politics and those who thought that when he lost back in november that it was all going to change welcome to the new world. and dave thank you very much alan we're lucky to have alan fischer there on capitol hill following this story for us and of course just to recap on our last couple of hours of coverage. we over the last couple of hours i have seen

a former u.s. president donald trump being acquitted in his 2nd impeachment trial it is the 2nd time in 12 months 7 republican senate has joined 50 democrats in voting to convict on a trunk but that fell short of the necessary 2 thirds majority were quiet for a conviction in the senate trent was accused of inciting an insurrection. the. 57 they use for is 3. 2 thirds of the series present not having for a guilty the judges that responded john trunk former president knows states. is not guilty is charged in article each birth i move that the senate sitting as a court of impeachment on the article against donald john trump adjourned sarnie die without objection the motions agreed to the senate sitting as a group as a juror sign a dime. the trial his victory hasn't come without

a singing with buke from his own party senate minority leader mitch mcconnell broke with party lines to criticize what he called trump's election lies mcconnell condemned the former president's behavior on january 6th and his conduct ahead of the insurrection but said he couldn't convict him because he is no longer president he is a private citizen this was an incomplete fine crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by the outgoing president hussein determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else court. our institutions on the way out there on contra bowl behavior did not end when the violence actually began whatever our ex-president claims he thought might happen.

whatever a reaction he. meant to produce by that afternoon we know. he was watching the. television as the rest rose well as he had a few minutes ago house speaker nancy pelosi was really incensed by those remarks from mitch mcconnell taking aim at the g.o.p. but also specifically saying that it was a very disingenuous speech what we saw in that senate today was a cowardly group of republicans who patently have no options of because they were afraid to defend their job respect the institution in which they served. imagine that it would be vandalized in so many bad ways that of or even go into here and that they would not respect their institute that the president of the

senate mike pence hang mike pence was the chant and they just dismissed that why because maybe they can't get another job. president trump responded shortly after the verdict with a written statement he said it's a sad commentary of our times that one political party in america is given a free pass to denigrate the rule of law i always have and always will be a champion for the on raving rule of law this has been the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. then concludes by writing our historic patriotic and you civil movement to make america great again has only just begun let's cross live now to annie gallacher who's in west palm beach florida i mean this will be of course the result that everyone was expecting but now that trump has his victory bisque.