Democrats focus Trump trial on mob threat to fellow Republicans

WASHINGTON – House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump’s impeachment for inciting the deadly siege of the Capitol highlighted in a video Wednesday how members of the pro-Trump mob searched the building looking for their vice president, chanting: “¡ Hang Mike Pence! “

Never-before-seen security video showed the view from inside the Capitol as rioters smashed windows and fought with police on January 6, arriving within 100 feet (30 m) of the room where Pence was sheltering with his family. The mob had installed a gallows outside.

The House of Representatives has accused Trump, a Republican, of inciting an insurrection by urging thousands of supporters to march on Capitol Hill on the day that Congress convened to certify the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden.

The rioters stormed the building, sending lawmakers into hiding and leaving five people dead, including a police officer.

The security footage highlighted the fact that hundreds of Trump supporters who attacked the building in an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power attacked Republicans, whose votes will be needed to convict Trump.

“The mob was looking for Vice President Pence,” Rep. Stacey Plaskett said, recounting images that showed the crowd yelling, “Hang up Mike Pence!” and in search of Democratic President Nancy Pelosi.

“President Trump put a target on their backs and then his mob stormed the Capitol to hunt them down,” he said.

Trump had repeatedly said that Pence had the power to stop the certification of election results, although he did not.

Democratic House managers prosecuting the case for impeachment, an uphill task in a narrowly divided Senate, said Wednesday that Trump planted the seeds of unrest by encouraging violence and making false claims that the election was stolen. long before January 6.

“Trump realized last spring that he could lose the November election and began sowing the seeds of anger among his supporters by saying he could only lose if it was stolen,” said Representative Joseph Neguse.

“If we want to protect our republic and prevent something like this from happening again, it must be condemned.”

The conviction, while unlikely, could lead to a vote to ban Trump from running again for office.

Trump’s lawyers, who will have 16 hours to present their side of the argument after House managers have finished, argue that their rhetoric was protected by the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee, and that the people they violated the Capitol were responsible for their own crime. behaviour.

They also say the trial is politically motivated.

‘Inciterator-in-chief’

Rep. Joaquín Castro cited what he called blatant acts of political intimidation against poll workers in the states Trump was losing. In Philadelphia, Atlanta and Milwaukee, Castro said, Trump supporters tried to use armed force to disrupt the vote count.

Time and again, Trump “deliberately encouraged” violence by his supporters, Plaskett said.

“The truth is that President Trump had spent months asking his supporters to march on a specific day, at a specific time, in specific places, to stop certification,” he said.

Trump’s actions threatened a hallmark of American democracy, the peaceful transfer of power, said Democratic managers, calling Trump the “chief inciter.”

“This case is not about blaming an innocent bystander for the horrific violence and damage that took place on January 6,” said lead manager Jamie Raskin opening the proceedings. “It’s about holding the person uniquely responsible for inciting the attack.”

A two-thirds majority in the Senate must vote to convict, meaning that at least 17 Republicans would have to challenge Trump’s still potent popularity among Republican voters. On Tuesday, only six of the 50 Republican senators broke their caucus to vote that the trial could advance even though Trump’s term ended on January 20.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson, a Trump ally, told reporters during a recess that the proceedings would get “pretty tedious.”

“This is a political exercise,” he said.

When asked if Republicans had received instructions from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell about voting, Senator Kevin Cramer said senators would vote in “conscience.”

Divided nation

In an Ipsos poll for Reuters released on Wednesday, 47% of those polled said Trump should be condemned, while 40% said no, with opinions divided by party.

The Senate trial is not the only investigation Trump faces after leaving the White House and losing the presidential protections that protected him from prosecution.

Prosecutors in Georgia’s largest county opened a criminal investigation into Trump’s attempts to influence the state’s election results after he was logged in a Jan. 2 phone call pressuring the secretary of state to “find” enough votes. to reverse his defeat in Georgia.

The Senate trial could conclude on Saturday or Sunday, according to a senior Senate aide.

Some Democrats had raised concerns that a lengthy trial could delay progress on Biden’s agenda, including a proposed $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package.

Biden did not plan to see the trial, the White House said. When asked about procedures Tuesday, the president said he was focused on his own work.

“The Senate has its job; are about to start. I’m sure they are going to behave well, ”he said.

Trump is the first president of the United States to be indicted twice. His first impeachment trial, stemming from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden, ended in an acquittal a year ago in what was then a Republican-controlled Senate.

No president of the United States has been removed from office by impeachment. Bill Clinton was indicted in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868, but they were also acquitted. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 instead of facing impeachment over the Watergate scandal.

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