Democrats begin arguments and reveal security footage: Impeachment Day Two highlights

Emily Brooks
Washington Examiner
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 21:30 UTC

© Reuters / US Senate handout

An except from footage of the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, presented at former president Donald Trump's impeachment trial in Washington, DC, February 10, 2021.

Democratic House impeachment managers on Wednesday made never-before-seen security footage from the Jan. 6 Capitol breach the highlight of their first day of substantive arguments during the Senate impeachment trial.

But the videos, while they pulled on senators' heartstrings, may do little to support the ultimate argument that former President Donald Trump is guilty of the House's "incitement of insurrection" charge.

Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin opened the day hitting at the crux of one Republican argument, that Trump did not incite the Capitol mob because his statements are protected under the First Amendment.

"This case is much worse than someone yelling 'fire' in a crowded theater," said Raskin, formerly a constitutional law professor. "It's more 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 theater, but to actually set the theater on fire" and then "does nothing but sit back, encourage the mob to continue its rampage, and watch the fire spread on TV with glee and delight."

Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse, another impeachment manager, outlined the structure of their case against Trump: presenting the provocation of the mob attack by Trump, an examination of the attack itself, and the harm it caused. The provocation, Neguse said, started with Trump's "big lie" that the election was stolen and then morphed into a call on his supporters to "fight like hell" to "stop the steal."

"It's not just one speech. It didn't just happen. It was part of a monthslong effort with a specific instruction: Show up on Jan. 6," Neguse said.

Impeachment managers Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Eric Swalwell of California, and Ted Lieu of California made presentations, which included Trump asking Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find enough votes to make him win the state over President Biden.

Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett attempted to demonstrate that Trump's words affect how his supporters act and that Trump knew that, referencing his comment that the far-right Proud Boys should "stand back and stand by," followed by members of the group wearing T-shirts with the phrase, and a Biden-Harris campaign van in Texas being surrounded by a caravan of Trump supporters.

But it was the new security footage from inside the Capitol building that stole the show.

The harrowing footage included an interior view of the first intruders breaking into the Capitol, Vice President Mike Pence being evacuated after intruders were close to him, senators evacuating the Senate chamber, and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney being told to turn around away from the mob.

Romney told reporters after seeing the footage that he had no idea the intruders were so close.

Impeachment managers presented the footage alongside already-public videos from the Jan. 6 breach that were previously made public, which boomed through the Senate chamber so loud that it could be heard from the hallways outside through closed doors.

The new footage, together with the old, created a timeline that shook some senators.

"We didn't realize it at the time, but until they walked us through 'here's what Trump is saying, here's what he's tweeting, here's what the mob is doing outside, here's what we're doing inside the chamber' and put it on the same timeline, I don't think most of us really grasped that," said Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons.

The footage did little to convince Republicans that Trump is responsible for the mob, however.

"Today's presentation was powerful and emotional, reliving a terrorist attack on our nation's capital, but there was very little said about how specific conduct of the president satisfies the legal standard ," Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told the press pool.

Castro also cited a New York Times report that asserted, based on an unnamed source, that Trump "initially rebuffed requests to mobilize the National Guard."

In arguing that Trump knew what his supporters were planing online, Plaskett cited an Independent story also based on an unnamed source that did not even have direct knowledge of the claim: An "ex-White House and campaign insider, who has known both Scavino and the president for years, said there was no way that Scavino and the Trump social media operation would not have been aware of plans circulating online to storm the Capitol."

Disputed words

Due in part to the tight timeline of impeachment and the decision to not call any witnesses so far, some of the points brought up by impeachment managers rely on press reports rather than indisputable fact. That issue caused confusion and ruckus on the House floor when Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee objected to one point of the presentation.

Impeachment manager Rep. David Cicilline cited news stories that said Trump called Lee during the Capitol invasion on accident, meaning to reach Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville. Cicilline said that Trump reportedly asked Tuberville to make more objections to delay certification of Electoral College results, painting a picture of a president indifferent to the Capitol attack.

Lee later objected to that anecdote being included in the record, saying that the statements "were not made by me, they're not accurate." Raskin later said they would work on withdrawing it, saying it was "not critical to our case."

Emily Brooks is a political reporter for the Washington Examiner

Comment: Reuters breathlessly reported on the video "evidence" presented by the prosecutors:

The House of Representatives' Democrats prosecuting Trump in his second impeachment trial on Wednesday leaned heavily on the threat posed to Republicans, including then-Vice President Mike Pence, by hundreds of Trump supporters attempting to stop Congress from certifying his election defeat.

"Today's presentation was powerful and emotional, reliving a terrorist attack on our nation's capital, but there was very little said about how specific conduct of the president satisfies a legal standard," said Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

The Senate on Tuesday in a 56-44 vote rejected an attempt to declare the trial unconstitutional because Trump left office when his term ended on Jan. 20. That margin suggested Democrats face an uphill climb in trying to convict the man who still remains popular with Republican voters.

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford on Wednesday appeared emotional at his desk after Eric Swalwell, one of the House impeachment managers, finished his presentation. Another senator, Steve Daines, put his hand on Lankford's arm in what appeared to be a gesture of comfort.

But speaking to reporters later, Lankford struggled to connect the visceral images to any culpability for Trump, who in a fiery speech before the attack on the Capitol urged his supporters to "fight" his election defeat.

"He's had 100 rallies and we've never seen that before. So that's the tough one to be able to link together," Lankford said.

Separately, Florida Senator Rick Scott said he was "disgusted" by the behavior of the rioters.

But asked whether Trump bore responsibility, he said, "You know, I've watched what he said. He's never said that somebody should break in. He actually said that people should do this peacefully ... Look, this is a complete waste of time."

Democrats deceptively mixed footage from the Capitol with clips from Trump's speech, which was being given a 45-minute walk away. They were even brazen enough to leave out Trump's last remarks, which were to 'peacefully make your voices heard and then go home'.

RT reports:

"It tears at your heart and brings tears to your eyes," said Romney - a vocal Trump critic and one of just six Republican senators who voted to proceed with the trial - after viewing the footage, adding that he didn't realize the danger he was in at the time.

Another video shows former vice president Pence and his family being quickly escorted out of the Senate chamber and down a stairway after a crowd had forced entry into the Capitol.

Though Democrats presented the dramatic recordings as proof of the chaos caused by Trump's incendiary rhetoric, arguing he "incited" the riot with repeat charges of fraud in the 2020 race, some lawmakers across the aisle weren't impressed with the evidence.

"I've said many times that the president's rhetoric is at times overheated, but this is not a referendum on whether you agree with everything the president says or tweets," said Texas Senator Ted Cruz. "This is instead a legal proceeding."

They spent a great deal of time focusing on the horrific acts of violence that were played out by the criminals, but the language from the president doesn't come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement.

Another Trump ally, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), also met the footage with a yawn, saying: "Nothing new here, for me, at the end of the day."

From the New York Post which highlighted Republican fury the Democrats' slanted presentation:

During Day 2 of the unprecedented proceedings in the US Senate, several high-profile Republicans said Democratic impeachment managers from the House of Representatives had selectively quoted from Trump's speech to his supporters before they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"President Trump told protestors to 'peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,'" the Republican House Judiciary Committee tweeted.

"You left that part out. Wonder why?"

A similar sentiment came from former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"There's one line from President Trump's January 6th speech that Democrats keep conveniently leaving out: 'Peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,'" Meadows tweeted.

Former Trump campaign spokesman and adviser Jason Miller also tweeted: "'Peaceful and patriotic' - three words the Democratic House Impeachment Managers seem to have edited out of all their video clips."

Midway through Wednesday's session, House manager Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) noted that Trump's instruction for his supporters to "peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" was a singular event during his speech.

"In a speech spanning almost 11,000 words — yes, we did check — that was the one time, the only time President Trump used the word peaceful or any suggestion of non-violence," Dean said.

"President Trump used the word 'fight' or 'fighting' 20 times, including telling the crowd they needed to 'fight like hell' to save our democracy."

During a break in the trial, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) also accused the House managers of hypocrisy for focusing on Trump's refusal to concede the 2020 election over unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

"[What] is going through all Republicans' minds is, 'But what about Hillary Clinton saying and telling Joe Biden, "Never concede"?'" Johnson said.

More Republican come out to refute some of the evidence presented in the impeachment charge:

Confusion reigned in the final moments of Day 2 of former President Donald Trump's Senate impeachment trial on Wednesday when an angry GOP Sen. Mike Lee insisted he had been misquoted by House impeachment managers.

As the Democratic lawmakers closed their first of two days of arguments, Lee (R-Utah) rose to his feet and demanded they strike from the record an account the House impeachment managers gave of a phone call Trump mistakenly placed to Lee during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"They are not true! They were false!" Lee said of the House managers' arguments. "I ask them to be stricken."

Media reports citing unnamed sources saying Trump called Lee during the riot when he had been trying to reach freshman Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama were used during the trial.

Tuberville also refuted that he had spent 10 minutes on the phone with Trump during the historic insurrection.

"I don't know if you've ever talked to President Trump. You don't get many words in," Tuberville told reporters outside the chamber on Wednesday evening.

"But he didn't get a chance to say a whole lot because I said, 'Mr. President, they just took the vice president out. I've got to go.'"

According to the Washington Examiner Lindsay Graham has said impeachment is dead in the water:

Sen. Lindsey Graham assured former President Trump the impeachment case against him is "over" during a phone call Tuesday night.

"The bottom line is I reinforced to the president, the case is over. It's just a matter of getting the final verdict now," the Trump-ally told reporters on Wednesday.

House impeachment managers are making their case that Mr. Trump incited an insurrection on Jan. 6 throughout several hours of legal arguments on the second day of Mr. Trump's impeachment hearing.

The trial opened on Tuesday with the two sides debating whether an impeachment trial for a former president is constitutional.

The Senate voted 56-44 that it was, allowing the proceeding to continue.

Six Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the trial moving forward, and expressed praise for the House Democrats' arguments, saying they were strong.

Mr. Trump's legal team, though, says they do not plan on changing their strategy. Mr. Graham told reporters he expects more than 44 senators to vote for acquittal.

"I think the vote for not guilty will probably grow beyond 44," he said.