WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — It was a historic day on Capitol Hill as the U.S. Senate took up the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, who was just sworn in as a senator last month, will serve as one of 100 jurors in the trial.
“I will sit as an impartial juror, I will listen to the evidence and then I will render a decision,” Warnock said Tuesday.
Warnock and his fellow senators will have to decide whether or not to convict Trump on charges that he incited the attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The attack happened the same day Warnock found out he won his Senate race.
“Earlier in that morning, I was celebrating my victory as the first Black senator from Georgia but by the afternoon, we saw the emergence of the ugly side of our history,” he said.
The Senate trial is taking center stage but Senator Warnock said Tuesday impeachment isn’t at the top of his agenda.
“We stand to lose housing, the ability to put food on the table and so much more if Congress does not act boldly and urgently,” Warnock added.
But Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) assured during a news conference Tuesday that the Senate would also continue work on a COVID aid package, saying, “we can do both at once.”
“Obviously, this is the beginning of the stupidest week in the Senate,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said Tuesday.
Cramer said without the votes to convict Trump, the trial is a waste of time.
“I gotta believe that it’s gonna be highly unlikely that there will be anywhere near enough for conviction considering that there aren’t even near enough to continue the trial at all,” Cramer said.
But, for now, the trial is expected to run at least through the end of the week.