THE Democrat Representatives leading the prosecution of Donald Trump firmly made the case in the Senate yesterday for a guilty verdict on a charge of incitement to insurrection.
That guilty verdict is unlikely to happen, given that it would take 17 Republican senators to join the 50 Democrats to gain the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction.
Only six Republicans have so far shown any inclination to find the former president guilty.
It is clear, however, that Trump is going to suffer greatly from a passionate, comprehensive and clever effort by Democrats to portray him as the man who incited the insurrection, and did so over many months, starting with his statements last spring that the only way he was going to lose was by a fraudulent election.
The use of video evidence, including never-seen-before security footage, is clearly going to be a huge part of the impeachment managers’ case.
Lead manager, Representative Jamie Raskin, warned that some of the footage from the attack on the Capitol on January 6 might not be suitable for children, and said he and his fellow managers would offer warnings before graphic content.
Raskin quoted Trump’s own words before the riot: “He told his supporters ‘you are going to have to fight like hell or you’re not going to have a country anymore’.
“He told them to fight like hell, and they brought us hell on that day.”
Raskin claimed former reality television star Trump watched the Capitol events and “did nothing to help us.”
In the first of several “fire” references, Raskin said: ““This case is much worse than someone who falsely shouts fire in a crowded theatre, it’s more like like a case where the town fire chief, who’s paid to put out fires, sends a mob not to yell fire in a crowded theatre, but to actually set the theatre on fire.
“You can’t ride with the cops and root for the robbers.”
He closed his opening speech by paying tribute to the Capitol police, one of whom died during the riots.
Raskin said that one black officer was called the “n-word 15 times, with the officer asking after the attack: “Is this America?”
Raskin said: “Can our country and our democracy ever be the same if we don’t hold accountable the person responsible for inciting the violent attack against our country, our Capitol, our democracy and all of those who serve us so faithfully and honourably? Is this America?”
As Raskin was speaking, news was breaking that a second investigation has begun into alleged attempts by Trump to intimidate election officials in Georgia.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have launched a criminal probe into Trump’s infamous phone call with Georgia secretary of state,
Brad Raffensperger, in which he asked his fellow Republican to “find” the 12,000 votes needed to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in the state.
Back at the trial, impeachment manager Eric Swalwell, a Democrat Representative from California, detailed how the events of January 6 were the product of many months of Trump incitement.
He said: “Just like to build a fire, it doesn’t just start with the flames.”
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