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. @RepRaskin opens the 2nd day of Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial. He says “The Senate is sitting as a court of impeachment on the facts.” He is disparaging Trump’s lawyers’ defense that Trump was an innocent bystander. “The evidence will show that Trump was the incited in chief.”
Impeachment managers will be issuing warnings about the graphic nature of some of the videos that will be shown as evidence. Especially for teachers screening this historic hearing. Raskin refers to 1/6 as “A day that will live in disgrace”. He decried “insurrectionary justice.”
A most haunting line from Jamie Raskin’s opening marks, after he made a solid analogy about Trump being like a fire chief who helped ignite the fire, is this phrase referring to January 6: “a kaleidoscope of sadness and terror and violence.”
Congressman Joe Neguse is speaking, starting off by saying America is the greatest country. His parents came to America from Eritrea. He is the first Black representative from Colorado. He is setting up the Big Lie scenario: “You can not concede, you must stop the steal”
Trump, he says, summoned the mob to stop the transfer of power on the day when the electoral votes were being certified. “This was not just a speech. It didn’t just happen. Those words had a very specific meaning to the crowd.” Trump told them “not just to stop the steal ..
To fight like hell. Now is not the time to retreat, now is the time to fight ever before. We will not bend, we will break. We will never give up. We will never ever ever surrender.” You can almost hear Stephen Miller’s words coming out of Trump’s mouth in his rally speech.
Every time a video clip of Trump is shown from his Ellipsis rally, it is more evidence of how he incited the insurrection at the Capitol. It WAS a call to action.
In their own words, rioters claim they were following Trump’s orders.
We are seeing the first appearance of Texas Representative Joaquin Castro making the House Impeachment case. He is showing Trump saying he would not guarantee a smooth transfer of power. How his lies were about a rigged election six months before Election Day.
So many clips of Trump making his base believe the only way he could lose was if the election was stolen. He was always on tv, always on Twitter, always sucking the oxygen out of the news cycle, pounding away at the Big Lie. Clips were shown of his followers swallowing it whole.
Now California Representative Eric Swalwell is continuing the House Managers Impeachment case. He is fact-checking Trump. He also said Trump spent 50 million dollars sending out ads about “Stop the Steal”. He was targeting his base to rally 1/6.
Just more evidence.
Swalwell is making the case that 1/6 was deliberate, planned and that Trump was host of the day.
15 minute break! Time for me to take a shower. Woo hoo.
After brief break, House Impeachment Manager Dean is presenting how Trump acted in the post-election. How he pressured state legislators to overturn the election. Side note: HAPPY TO SEE A WOMAN making the case against the bigly sexist.
House Manager Dean is referencing Georgia’s election official Gabriel Sterling’s warning on Dec 1. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s gonna get hurt. Someone’s gonna get shot. Someone’s gonna get killed. https://www.atlantamagazine.com/news-culture-articles/gabriel-sterling-on-death-threats-the-dark-side-and-americas-redemptive-potential/
House Manger Lieu is raising the fight between Trump and Pence which led to threats against Pence’s life by Trump’s mob on 1/6. Who could forget when Trump said Pence would be a pussy if he didn’t overturn Biden’s win.
Raskin introduces his former law school student who he says was an A+ student then and now. Stacy Plaskett, representing the people of the Virgin Islands. She said she is confident today that truth and facts are overwhelming that Trump resorted to violence to get his way.
. @StaceyPlaskett did not even get to vote on impeaching Trump. But she is making her case right here, right now on the Senate floor as a House Impeachment Manager. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/stacey-plaskett-impeachment-manager.html?referringSource=articleShare
Plaskett says Trump knew exactly what he was doing.
“He knew who he was calling, and the violence they were capable of,” she says of Trump. “Make no mistake, the violence was not just foreseeable to President Trump, the violence was what he deliberately encouraged.”
“He knew who he was calling, and the violence they were capable of,” she says of Trump. “Make no mistake, the violence was not just foreseeable to President Trump, the violence was what he deliberately encouraged.”
Trump told his minions “Stand back, and stand by”. We saw him say that during a debate. They heard him. Cut to 1/6
Trump’s former caddie and digital director, Dan Scavino added fight music to a video Trump tweeted about a group of his supporters trying to run a Biden campaign bus off the highway. in Texas. I remember when it happened, and the campaign had to halt briefly. Then he posted:
I wonder how Republican Senators in the chamber today felt when a video of a MAGA March chant was “Destroy the GOP”? All part of the House Managers presentation. So many MAGATs filming themselves at these pre1/6 violent “protests” where they attacked a black church.
This was always the goal. “The Capitol is our goal. Everything else is a distraction. Every corrupt member of Congress locked in one room and surrounded by real Americans as an opportunity that will never present itself.” A post grabbed and shown as evidence.
This is from SITE- an intelligence group that monitors extremist content, usually from overseas. But now it is clear the greatest threat to our national security is from domestic white terrorists.
Other social media grabs introduced as evidence include the call for war. All of it in public view. Stacey Plaskett is doing a bang up job presenting the House Managers case against Trump.
Congresswoman Dean is back to share her personal story the day the Capitol was stormed. She describes the terrifying banging on the chamber doors after being told to don a gas mask. How she texted her husband and sons. How it turned to chaos.
