House impeachment managers will be making their final arguments beginning Thursday afternoon in the Senate trial that decides whether former President Donald Trump will be convicted of inciting the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The final push to impeach Trump follows the second day of the impeachment trials during which House Democrats, led by lead manager Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), presented the Senate with a detailed and graphic retelling of the display of domestic terrorism that took place last month. The presentation included โshocking new audio and video recordings of rioters declaring their intent to harm Vice President Mike Pence and other top officialsโand showing how close they came to doing so,โ the Washington Post reports.
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The previously unseen footage shared by the impeachment managers included chants to โhangโ Pence as well as a clip of a man searching for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while asking โNaaaancy? Where aaaare you, Nancy?โ like he was Jack Torrance from The Shining.
From the Post:
All of it, the impeachment managers said, was a direct result of the presidentโs months-long effort to persuade his supporters of the โbig lieโ that the election had been stolen. After he had exhausted all other options to overturn President Bidenโs victory, they said โ including dozens of lawsuits and a sustained campaign to pressure state election officials โ Trump turned his sights to Jan. 6, the day Congress was scheduled to formalize Joe Bidenโs electoral college victory.
His supporters, the managers said, were heeding his calls with their violent plans to stop the vote count and even harm lawmakers.
โPresident Trump put a target on their backs,โ said Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic House delegate from the Virgin Islands, describing the threat to lawmakers and Pence. โAnd his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.โ
House Democrats also accused Trump of initially refusing to call his cult followers off as the violence unfolded even after lawmakers and White House aides urged him to do so. The managers argued that Trump was hoping the violence at the Capitol would actually block electoral votes from being counted.
So who knows if showing the Capitol riot for the life-threatening (and life-taking, for that matter) act of terrorism that it was will convince Senate Republicansโwho already seem to have their minds made up that they will not convict the former presidentโof Trumpโs complicity.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the managers โspent 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 doesnโt come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement.โ But as the New York Times reports, โHouse managers are urging the Senate to hold Mr. Trump to a higher standard, not a legal definition of incitement.โ
This brings us to day three.
According to the Times, prosecutors have around eight hours left to make their case that Trump should be convicted of inciting the riot once the Senate convenes at noon on Thursday. After the managers are done, the defense gets to present their arguments for why Trump should not be convicted. Trump is likely hoping for a better performance from his defense team than the abysmal display of Republican nonsense that happened during day oneย when officials debated the constitutionality of impeaching Trump after heโd already left office.
On day two, Raskin made the argument one would think was all that was needed: โHe told them to โfight like hell,โ and they brought us hell on that dayโโbut unfortunately, that truth doesnโt seem to be enough.
As the Times reports, โall but six Republican senators voted against proceeding with the trialโ on Tuesday. As we previously reported, a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Senate is needed to convict, meaning 17 Republicans would have to join all 48 Democrats and two independents in voting in favor of conviction.
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