Impeachment trial – live: Trump poured ‘kerosene on the flames’ as Pence family fled for lives, Democrats say

The former president didn't have a particularly good day on Tuesday, but one possible small crumb of comfort is that he could be allowed at Mar-a-Lago, where he has resided since Joe Biden's inauguration.

A number of Mr Trump's neighbours have objected about him living there, claiming it could hurt property prices in the area and also citing an agreement with the town about a time limit on how long people can stay at the private club.

But at the Palm Beach Town Council meeting on Tuesday no action was taken on the question of the former president living in the community.

It's unclear if the council will address the issue further, although an attorney representing the residents asked — with no response — that he be allowed to give a fuller presentation in April. The neighbours could also sue the town and Mar-a-Lago.

Mr Trump's former adviser was not impressed by what he saw at the impeachment proceedings on Tuesday and has called for changes to be made.

“The strategy is not working ... this is asymmetric information warfare: Democrats argue a coherent made-for-TV fantasy that works on an emotional level,” Mr Bannon said, according to the Associated Press.

Graeme Massie has all the details.

The former president’s niece, who penned a scathing memoir about Mr Trump, said on Twitter on Tuesday that the whole process of impeachment left her “heartbroken.”

“I know I should be enraged, disgusted, horrified, and outraged,” she wrote. “On some level I am all of those things, but mostly right now I’m heartbroken.”

Report by Josh Marcus

Opening arguments will begin in Donald Trump's impeachment trial after the first day ended with the Senate voting to hear the case for convicting the former president of inciting the riot at the US Capitol.

House Democrats prosecuting the case and the former president's attorneys will lay out their opposing arguments before the senators, who are serving as jurors.

Each side will get 16 hours to present their case and then will take questions from senators. There is no absolute time-scale for the trial but it is expected to run through the weekend.

Mr Trump, who is living in Mar-a-Lago, is unlikely to testify at the trial, but is reportedly watching it unfold on television and is unhappy with his lawyers's performance so far.

Michael T van der Veen is one of the three attorneys representing Donald Trump in his Senate impeachment trial that will forge ahead today.

However Mr van der Veen didn't previously have much nice to say about the former president, once reportedly describing him as a "f***ing crook" while he was representing another client.

Namita Singh has all the details

Donald Trump may not have ever admitted that Joe Biden beat him in November's election, but his under-fire impeachment lawyer Bruce Castor did just that during Tuesday's proceedings.

Mr Castor, who has been targeted with criticism and online memes over his rambling opening statement, said: "The American people just spoke, and they just changed administrations."

He also said that Americans are “smart enough to pick a new administration if they don’t like the old one, and they just did”.

The comments are in contrast to what Mr Trump and his defence team have been saying so far, alleging that the election was “stolen” and rigged, filing several lawsuits that were either rejected or withdrawn. 

Mr Trump has also repeatedly claimed that he won a “landslide” victory and continued with the claims in his “Save America” rally, after which his supporters stormed into the Capitol during the hearing to certify the election results in favour of Joe Biden. 

“Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide. This was not a close election,” the former president said in the rally before the Capitol riot.

Jamie Raskin, leader of the Democratic team prosecuting Donald Trump, recalled on Tuesday his 24-year-old daughter and son-in-law hiding in fear in the US Capitol during the attack on 6 January. 

Mr Raskin invited his family to witness the joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. He and his wife were also mourning the death of their son, Tommy, who died a week earlier on 31 December. 

Mr Raskin said his daughter had asked whether they would be safe on the visit, after hearing of plans by thousands of Trump supporters arriving in Washington to try to stop the routine proceeding.

“I told them, of course, it should be safe. This is the Capitol,” the Maryland representative said as he wrapped up his opening argument.

But when the mob stormed in and seized the Capitol, leading to hours of violence and riots which left a police officer and four people dead, his daughter Tabitha and other family members were left to huddle in an office off the floor of the House of Representatives.

Mr Raskin said when he finally was reunited with his daughter and son-in-law, he apologised to them and promised things would be better on their next visit.

“And you know what she said? She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol,’” the congressman recalled.

Republican senator Bill Cassidy said that he voted in favour of holding an impeachment trial because Donald Trump’s defence team did “a terrible job.”

“Trump’s team was disorganised, they did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over it, almost as if they were embarrassed of their arguments,” Mr Cassidy told reporters at the Capitol.

The Louisiana senator was one of six GOP Senators to vote with 50 Democrats that the trial against the former president should go forward and was not unconstitutional. 

“Now if I’m an impartial juror and one side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job on the issue at hand, as an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did the good job,” he said.

Mr Cassidy’s position was a switch from January when he voted to end the proceedings against Mr Trump on the grounds that they were unconstitutional.

For Independent Voices, Ahmed Baba writes most Senate Republicans were not swayed by the chaos and violence unfolded in front of the nation’s eyes again during the impeachment trial's opening video.

"What we saw today was classic Republican deflection. When seeking to avoid accountability, the GOP always complains about process and often makes a disingenuous meta-argument about the nature of the accountability itself somehow counting as oppression. Their claims about constitutionality and cries of free speech violations are examples of both."

As Donald Trumps stands trial for his alleged role in inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January, questions about what exactly happened that day – and who exactly carried out what actions – are still lingering.

Although there have been more than 200 arrests tied to the Capitol riot, there has been little new information regarding the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, the identity of the individual or individuals who planted bombs at the headquarters of both the Republican and Democratic parties in Washington DC, and whether or not charges will be brought in the death of QAnon supporter Ashli Babbit.

Mr Sicknick was killed during the Capitol attack after he was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. Thus far, no one has been charged with Mr Sicknick's death.

Graig Graziosi reports.