Ya'll are gonna make me be That Guy again today, aren't you.

Criminal incitement requires more than merely standing by and letting idiot followers commit crimes. It requires, among other things, an actual and immediate direction to commit a crime.

And, btw, as a general matter, we want it to be hard to be criminally liable for incitement.

It's how speakers can get on stages and be provocative without having to worry that they're on the hook because of some loony-toon in the audience.

We also—generally, but to a lesser degree than in the criminal case—want it to be hard to sue for incitement in the civil context.

Because, again, you chill speech when public speakers can't decide whether they're going to be on the hook for bad acts of people in the audience.

Yesterday, Trump sent some of his followers to the Capitol. But, also, some of those people skipped the rally and went straight to the Capitol.

And Trump didn't say "break into the Capitol and attack Capitol police." He said "let's walk to Congress."

Now, just because this doesn't look like criminal incitement or even incitement in an odd civil tort context, that doesn't mean that Trump's conduct on January 6th and earlier isn't impeachable.

It certainly is. That's a political case, and Congress should make it.