World News: OnPolitics: Trump and Democrats gear up for impeachment trial

Monday, February 8

Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and other Democratic managers walk through the Capitol to deliver to the Senate the article of impeachment alleging incitement of insurrection against former President Donald Trump on Jan. 25.

OnPolitics: Trump and Democrats gear up for impeachment trial

Oral arguments for former President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial begin Tuesday. Will there be witnesses?

We're T-minus one day until former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial starts Tuesday in the Senate.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and Democrats are pushing forward with their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan aka the American Rescue Plan.

It's Mabinty, with Monday's top political news. Let's get to it, shall we?

Trump v. House Democrats

Senators face key decisions on how to arrange the trial, including the crucial question of whether to call witnesses:

The defense: Trump's attorneys laid out their 78-page rebuttal to the impeachment article charging the former president with inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The defense claims that the case is unconstitutional and would violate Trump's First Amendment rights.

"This rushed, single article of impeachment ignores the very Constitution from which its power comes and is itself defectively drafted," the brief states.

The response: House Democrats replied Monday that Trump's written argument is "wholly without merit" and "baseless."

Brush up before tomorrow:

•	The consequences of the impeachment trial could be considerable for Trump. And for almost everybody else.
•	The bar for convicting Trump remains just as high as it did almost a year ago when he faced two articles of impeachment. Here's how the two trials compare.

Opening schools: 'A national emergency'

Biden expressed concern about millions of women losing their jobs and the shuttering of schools. "It is a national emergency. It genuinely is a national emergency," Biden said in an interview with "CBS Evening News."

In September alone, about 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce, compared with 216,000 men, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Biden talks school reopenings

"I think it's time for schools to reopen safely. Safely. You have to have fewer people in the classroom, you have to have ventilation systems that have been reworked," Biden said during the interview with CBS.

Biden promised to reopen schools within his first 100 days in office. Calls to bring students back to the classroom have increased with the start of a new semester, but the vaccine rollout and other mitigation measures are lagging behind what experts say is necessary to return safely.

"Our CDC commissioner is going to be coming out with science-based judgment, within I think as early as Wednesday, as to lay out what the minimum requirements are," the president said.

•	Congressional Democrats will propose to give families up to $3,600 per child this year as part of Biden's COVID-19 relief plan.
•	A new report concludes that raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour would cause 1.4 million Americans to lose their jobs but would lift 900,000 people out of poverty.

More news to know

•	Do states and cities 'need' Biden's $350 billion in direct COVID-19 relief? It depends where you're asking
•	'It gave me hope': Biden emotionally reflects on son Hunter's memoir on his battle with addiction
•	Adding Supreme Court justices? Progressives may be on collision course with Biden