President Biden won’t be watching much of former President Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, according to a White House spokeswoman.
“I think it’s clear from his schedule and from his intention he will not spend too much time watching the proceedings,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, noting Biden would be “pretty busy.”
Trump, during his first Senate impeachment trial, watched the proceedings live on television from inside the White House while frequently weighing in on Twitter. The then-president issued 142 tweets and retweets on the first day of the opening arguments and the second day of the trial, according to Factbase, an independent data analysis firm.
Trump White House officials later argued their response to the coronavirus was delayed due to the trial, which began close to the time that senior aides learned about the emergence of COVID-19.
The White House has declined to say what Biden believes should happen in Trump’s second trial, declining to say whether the 46th president believes the 45th should be convicted and barred from again holding federal office.
“I think his views of the former president are pretty clear, but he’s going to leave it to the Senate to see the impeachment proceedings forward through,” she said.
Psaki added: “I don’t expect that he’s going to be, you know, posturing or commenting on this through the course of the week.”
Last week, Trump’s lawyers argued that impeaching a former president is unconstitutional and said that his speech at a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, during which he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol in protest of the results of the election that lawmakers were certifying, did not directly cause the deadly riot that followed.
Psaki declined to say whether Biden believes Trump’s Senate impeachment trial is constitutional. At the time, Biden implored Trump “to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”
In a bid to dismiss the trial, lawyers for Trump argued in a legal brief on Monday that the House impeachment managers made incorrect claims, including that the president failed to respond quickly to stop the violence because he was pleased.
“There is no legitimate proof, nor can there ever be, that President Trump was ‘delighted’ by the events at the Capitol,” the lawyers wrote in a 78-page trial memorandum.
News reports, featured in the House impeachment brief, cited senior administration officials describing Trump as “delighted” and “walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building.”
Trump was “borderline enthusiastic because it meant the certification was being derailed,” according to a CNN reporter’s tweet included in the brief.
The House impeachment managers rejected the call to dismiss the case.
“The evidence of President Trump’s conduct is overwhelming,” they wrote. “He has no valid excuse or defense for his actions. And his efforts to escape accountability are entirely unavailing. As charged in the Article of Impeachment, President Trump violated his Oath of Office and betrayed the American people.”
The impeachment managers are expected to rely on video to make the case that Trump incited an insurrection.
Trump’s trial starts at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
