Nevada Sen. Cortez Masto wants speedy Senate trial for Trump

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Steve Marcus

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV, responds to a question during an editorial board meeting at the Las Vegas Sun office in Henderson Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019.

Tue, Jan 19, 2021 (5:10 p.m.)

Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto wants a speedy Senate trial for President Donald Trump, who was impeached for inciting followers to storm the U.S. Capitol.

Cortez Masto, a Democrat, did not say whether she would vote to convict Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection.

“I look forward to a very prompt and fair trial,” she said today. “I am confident that we will be able to do just that.”

Cortez Masto said the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was carried out by far-right extremists attempting to destroy a symbol of democracy and stop Congress from certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“It’s not just those of us who were there in the Capitol at the time, it is the American public who watched what happened, who feel that their symbol of democracy — their Capitol —they feel betrayed by that,” Cortez Masto said.

Senators were “witnesses and victims” to the insurrection, Cortez Masto said.

“This is something where the facts cannot be distorted,” she said, stressing that “nobody is above the law.”

Nevada’s three Democratic representatives, Dina Titus, Steven Horsford and Susie Lee, voted on Jan. 13 to impeach Trump. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei voted against it.

Cortez Masto said she suspects House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will transfer the articles of impeachment to the Senate within the next few days.

The biggest question mark is how Senate Republicans will react.

To convict Trump, 17 GOP senators would have to join with every Democratic senator.

Ten Republicans in the House broke with their party to impeach Trump.

Lawmakers could also pass legislation to bar Trump from ever again holding federal office.

This morning, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump “provoked” the mob that stormed the Capitol.

“They tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like, but we pressed on,” he said.

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