US Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett highlighted previous acts by Trump supporters, who then traveled to Washington on January 6, arguing that the former president was aware of the violence he was inciting with his election rhetoric.
“The truth and the facts are overwhelming because our president, the president of the United States, incited a crowd to invade the Capitol in an attempt to prevent certification of a presidential election,” said Plaskett.
Like other managers before her, Plaskett declared that the violence perpetrated by Trump was predictable, given the former president’s conduct in the months, weeks and days before the attack, and previous incidents of violence by groups that participated in the unrest.
“The violence that occurred on January 6, as well as the attack itself, did not just appear,” she said.
Plaskett noticed at the time of the attack, January 6, that Mr. Trump “had every reason to know that they were armed, that they were violent and that they would really fight. He knew who he was calling and the violence they were capable of.”
She also emphasized that, instead of dismissing his supporters, Trump “lit the flame of violence and it worked.”
Focusing on the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Plaskett highlighted the members’ stories of violence and reproduced images from the September 29 presidential debate, during which Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and wait” when asked to condemn them. The Proud Boys then sold goods with the phrase.
She also recalled an incident in October in Texas in which a caravan of Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus full of employees and volunteers in an attempt to get him off the road. Mr. Trump shared a video of the incident on Twitter, declaring “I LOVE TEXAS!”
“For anyone who says Donald Trump did not know the violence he was inciting, I urge you to consider that your supporters tried to drive a bus off the highway in the middle of the day to intimidate his opponent’s campaign workers,” said Plaskett, adding he called the supporters who participated in the caravan “patriots”.
Plaskett said the caravan organizer in Texas was involved in the January 6 rally near the White House and was among those who invaded the Capitol, going to the Rotunda before inciting the crowd to enter.
“These are the people that President Trump cultivated, who were on standby,” she said.
Plaskett said those who were involved in previous Trump campaign events were brought back to help plan the January 6 rally, and Trump himself played a role.
“Donald Trump, for many months, cultivated violence, praised it and then, when he saw the violence his supporters were capable of, he channeled it into his big, wild and historic event,” she said. “He organized the 6th of January with the same people who had just organized a rally that resulted in substantial violence and absolutely guaranteed that, this time, the violent participants of the rally would not remain in the same place. He ensured that these violent people would march literally here, in our footsteps, from Elipse to the Capitol, to prevent theft. His cavalry. That was deliberate. “
Plaskett said Trump and his team monitored public forums where posts alluded to violence on the United States Capitol on January 6, and she showed photos of members of the Proud Boys inside the building wearing earplugs and walkie-talkies to better coordinate with each other. the others.
“The exact thing that happened on January 6 was their goal. And they said it out loud on websites that the Trump administration was actively monitoring,” she said.
She also cited a Washington Post article about an FBI report warning of “war” on Capitol Hill, as well as a warning from DC Mayor Mayor Muriel Bowser for residents to stay away from the area and arrests made before the disturbances.
“This is all in public view. All of this,” said Plaskett. “The truth is generally seen and rarely heard. The truth is whether the truth is denied or not, and the truth is that President Trump spent months summoning his supporters to a march on a specific day at a specific time in specific locations to interrupt certification. And before the event, there were hundreds, hundreds of posts online showing that his supporters interpreted this as a call to attack the Capitol. “
Plaskett added that instead of trying to contain the violence in the face of these warnings, Trump appeared before his supporters and urged them to “fight like hell or you will no longer have a country”.
“And that’s why this is different,” she said. “And that is why he must be condemned and disqualified.”