SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio-area Rep. Joaquin Castro is one of the nine impeachment managers who will be presenting the case for the prosecution of former President Donald Trump to the U.S. Senate.
He says they're asking all 100 senators to keep an open mind.
“I do think that once everybody starts to hear the evidence and considers the facts and the evidence, and understands that you've got to hold a president who does this accountable, I'm hopeful that ultimately the Senate will convict Donald Trump,” Castro said.
The fifth-term congressman, who is also an attorney, says the impeachment managers will spend the next week dividing up the case for presentation.
“We believe, once people see all the evidence, that they will see clearly that Donald Trump incited insurrection after telling his supporters a big lie that the election had been stolen from him and from them," Castro said. "He told that lie over and over without any evidence at all. He said he was going to march down to the capitol on January 6. Some of them did march to the capitol, some of them became violent and five people lost their lives. You have to take action against that."
Castro acknowledged that many people consider the impeachment a waste of time with Trump now out of office. He also said he knows some criticize the action as taking attention away from President Joe Biden’s agenda, including the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
But Castro emphasized Trump must be held accountable.
“No president can perceive that they have a free pass in the last few weeks of their term to try to incite an attempted coup against the country and know they are just going to run the clock out and not face any consequences at all; nothing is going to happen to them," the Democrat said. "If that's the precedent we set, then we're asking for this again in four years or in 30 years."
Both the U.S. House members who have selected as prosecutors and Trump's legal defense team will have two weeks to prepare. The Senate trial is scheduled to begin the week of Feb. 8.