Comment on Trump’s trial begins, senators vowing ‘impartial justice’

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate opened the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump with quiet ceremony Thursday – senators standing at their desks to swear an oath of “impartial justice” as jurors, House prosecutors formally reciting the charges and Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. The trial, only the third such undertaking in American history, is unfolding at the start of the election year, a time of deep political division in the nation.