As the second day of Donald Trump’s historic second Senate impeachment trial was about to begin, the CFO of Twitter said the former GOP president would be banned from the global social media platform if he decides to run for office again.
Ned Segal confirmed to Becky Quick of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “if you are removed from the platform, you are removed from the platform.”
House Democrats are beginning two days of arguments in Trump’s second impeachment trial, trying to convince Republicans the former president alone was responsible for inciting his mob of supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and interrupted the presidential electoral count.
On Jan. 8, Twitter said it “permanently suspended” Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.” Trump was locked out of his account on his preferred social medial platform for 12 hours earlier that week after a violent mob loyal to him stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Congress from affirming Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump posted a video on Twitter calling them “very special” people and saying he loved them. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer.
According to reports, after the ban, Trump turned to the official presidential account @POTUS to resume his tweeting. However, the tweets weren’t about official presidential actions, and Twitter deleted them.
A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News, “As we’ve said, using another account to try to evade a suspension is against our rules. We have taken steps to enforce this with regard to recent Tweets from the @POTUS.”
The arguments Wednesday from the nine Democratic impeachment managers for the House, which impeached Trump last month, will come a day after the Senate voted to move ahead with the trial even though Republicans and Trump’s lawyers argued that it was unconstitutional because Trump had already left office. All Democrats and six Republicans disagreed, arguing there is legal precedent for the trial and that there should be no exceptions for impeachable behavior in a president’s last months in office.
While Democrats won Tuesday’s vote, it also signaled that they will not likely have the votes for an eventual conviction, because they would need a minimum of 17 Republicans to vote with them. Democrats say they know they are arguing the case uphill, but they are holding out hope that they will convert more Republicans by the final vote.
The latest impeachment charge — authored by U.S. Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Ted Lieu of California — alleges Trump incited the riot, which began when Trump supporters descended on the nation’s capital the same day as Congress began certifying the Electoral College vote.
More Americans in history cast their ballot before and during the Nov. 3 presidential election, and Biden secured an overwhelming majority of the popular vote — more than 80 million — and electoral votes, 306. A total of 270 Electoral College votes are needed to win the White House.
However, before and after the election, Trump continued to make widespread allegations about the integrity of the electoral process and claimed massive voter fraud. His legal teams filed numerous lawsuits in several battleground states, all of which have been dismissed by those respective judges.
Before the riot, Trump addressed his supporters, thousands of whom then marched to the U.S. Capitol and breached the building. Congress and staff were forced to evacuate the building and forced into recess until the violence could be contained. Later that evening and stretching into the next day, Congress officially certified the Electoral College totals, ensuring Biden’s win as the nation’s 46th president.
After weeks of delays and legal challenges, Trump eventually acknowledged Biden’s victory, though he never conceded the election.
Approving one impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection,” the Democrat-led House impeached Trump on Jan. 13, one week before his term was to have ended anyway. The unprecedented second impeachment of an American president came without hearings, witnesses or testimony.
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