Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Monday, February 8th. I'm Naila Boudou.

Here's what you need to know today, why COVID vaccines are such a scientific achievement.

Plus, our thought bubble on President Biden's stimulus bill. But first, the spectacle of impeachment is today's one big thing.

Former President Trump's second impeachment trial begins in the Senate tomorrow, where they'll decide whether or not to convict him of inciting the Capitol insurrection on January 6th.

Here's what you need to know. This trial is expected to be shorter than his first impeachment trial. House impeachment managers led by Representative Jamie Raskin are the prosecution lawyers.

Trump has hired defense attorneys David Shown in Bruce Caster, the Senate members serve as jury. And as of right now, there aren't enough votes to convict Trump on the article of insurrection. So why does all this matter?

Axios co-founder Mike Allen is here to answer that. Mike, good morning. Good morning, Naila. If they don't have the numbers for Democrats to convict President Trump, why does going through all of this matter?

Now, Democrats say that there's two big purposes. One is accountability to put President Trump on trial, even though he isn't physically there. And second, put Republicans on the record.

This was very much on the mind of Speaker Pelosi when she went ahead with impeachment. And now with Democrats with their trial, they want Republicans to have to say where they are, even though they know that in the end is looking like President Trump will be acquitted.

There are some even Republicans who worry that this empowers him, that having him vindicated in his mind a second time will just give him oxygen when he's been pretty quiet down there in Marilaga.

How are Republicans strategizing around this moment then?

The way the one Trump advisor said it to me is, don't expect any noise out of the president, at least before a result. He's more than happy to this advisor said, tread water for a little bit and take it easy.

Now what are Democrats thinking? They're going to present some extremely vivid video as part of the trial.

They want to recapture for America. What that feeling was like, what really happened? And we're going to see it with this very vivid electronic presentations by Democrats.

And of course, what Democrats are saying, Mike, is that this is why President Trump should no longer be allowed to hold office again.

To that end, if their conviction doesn't happen, they've been talking about a censure option that could bar him from running in 2024. Is that realistic?

Yeah, now I think they very well could pursue it, but it's not clear that's enforceable, but now you can see why that would be attractive.

If suddenly he was believed to not be able to hold office, and I'm very skeptical that censure would accomplish that, it certainly would open things up on both sides.

What else are you watching for while everyone's eyes are on this impeachment trial?

Yeah, I would look for the Biden administration to move on this idea of providing masks to every American.

And now with the why it matters, I think the White House will say this should have been done long ago. It can be done.

But now my between the lines is yes, it would show that government can work, which is what people want.

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