Trump trial: What happened on day five as president's lawyers lay out defence
In a sentence, in a paragraph and in 100 words - Sky News tells you what you need to know about what's happened in the Senate.
Saturday 25 January 2020 19:53, UK
President Donald Trump's lawyers have begun their opening arguments in the impeachment trial, claiming the proceedings are a politically-motivated attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Here is what happened on day five of the impeachment trial.
In a sentence:
White House lawyers began their defence of the president in a short, fast-moving session aimed at unpicking the Democrats' three days of evidence.
In a paragraph:
The president has been waiting for this moment, despite bemoaning that it began on a Saturday, "Death Valley in T.V.", as Trump tweeted.
The cable news networks still took it live, and the American public had a chance to watch an aggressive response to the central charges against President Trump.
In 100 words:
The White House lawyers knew it had been a long week for senators, and decided to simply preview their case on the first Saturday session of Congress during Donald Trump's administration.
They kept their arguments to just over two hours, moving between speakers to keep senators engaged.
It seemed to work. There were fewer politicians fiddling with fidget spinners, or stepping out for bathroom breaks.
:: Listen to Divided States on , , , and
Trump's team dug at the Democrats for using 21 of their 24 available hours of evidence, teasing that they would take much less time.
They sought to undermine the facts that impeachment managers had presented, saying many of the arguments they had made were based on presumption and guesswork.
The stakes were high, they said, with the White House's lead lawyer presenting the impeachment case as an effort "to stop an election, to interfere in an election and to remove the president of the United States from the ballot".
Ultimately, the goal of the defence team is to offer enough doubt to Republican senators that they are able to acquit the president in good conscience, and sell that decision to their voters.
Those in Trump's orbit will end the week pleased.
In a quote:
They're asking you not only to聽overturn the results of the last聽election, but as I've said聽before, they're asking you to聽remove President Trump from the聽ballot in an election that's聽occurring in approximately nine聽months.聽They're asking you to tear up聽all of the ballots across this聽country on your own initiative.聽Take that decision away from the聽American people.
Tweet of the day: