Staff Reporter,: The Democratic House managers continued their arguments on Thursday, Day 3 of former President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
On Wednesday, their presentation included previously unseen security camera video, showing just how close pro-Trump rioters came to lawmakers and their staff during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Their timeline of the attack follows earlier arguments that Trump knew his words on Jan. 6 and in the weeks leading up to it would lead to violence, which his defense says he did not intend for.
The House managers were allotted as many as two days to present their case, and they wrapped short of the full 16 hours they could have used. Trump’s defense team begins its arguments against convicting the former president starting on Friday, and is expected to wrap up on the same day.
The Senate began the trial Tuesday, a little more than a month after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Senators voted 56-44 that the trial was in fact constitutional, even though Trump has already left office.
The House of Representatives voted on Jan. 13 to impeach Trump for incitement of insurrection with just a week left in his term, charging that he caused the riot that endangered hundreds of lawmakers and left five people dead, including a police officer. Two more police officers committed suicide in the days following the riot.
Trump has denied responsibility for stoking the mob on Jan. 6. His lawyers claim he did not encourage unlawful acts and that his comments to supporters that day are protected by the First Amendment. They also argue that he should not be on trial at all, as he is no longer president — though many constitutional experts disagree.
As Congress began counting the Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, Trump called for his supporters to walk to the Capitol in protest of the election results. Trump falsely claimed the election had been “stolen,” despite his clear loss to now-President Biden.
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated,” he said. “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Hours later, multiple people were dead, the Capitol building was in a state of chaos, and still, Biden’s election victory was certified by Congress.
House impeachment managers will be dissecting those remarks and others made by Trump in the months prior to argue that his false election claims laid the groundwork for the violence far before that particular rally.
Trump is not expected to participate in the Senate trial. He also didn’t participate in his first impeachment trial, which ended in an acquittal a year ago.
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