The Impeachment of the 45th President, Donald J. Trump, is underway. The rules of the impeachment include that once the articles are submitted that the Senate drop all other business in favor of this until it comes to a conclusion. The House Managers wrapped up their presentation Friday night with their three days / 24 hours allotted to them. The White House defense team wrapped up their presentation Tuesday afternoon.

The next phase is a two-day session where Senators are able to submit questions in writing to the Chief Justice that the House Managers and White House defense team will be able to answer. The first day was… interesting as it gave us a clue as to how some of the Senators are feeling by their questions. There are moments where you realize some of them may not be as swift as you’d think based on some questions, and the naked partisanship sometimes is just disheartening. The question of Bolton as a witness looms large.

The Senate will be hearing presentations beginning this afternoon at 1:00 pm as Chief Justice John Roberts has Supreme Court duties in the morning. The session will again be regarding two Articles of Impeachment:

• Article I, “Abuse of Power,” accuses Trump of pressuring the Ukrainian government into announcing an investigation into the Bidens by withholding both a White House meeting and military aid.
• Article II, “Obstruction of Congress,” accuses Trump of trying to impede the impeachment inquiry by urging government agencies not to comply with subpoenas and witnesses not to cooperate.

All the usual rules apply to this thread as it does to others and the PT thread, but this is not a daily PT thread as we hope folks that normally don’t follow politics will be able to follow along and understand the importance of this, the third impeachment trial of a President in the history of the United States.