It turns out that the Democrats’ main witness was Donald Trump.
On the second day of the impeachment trial, the ex-president’s words and tweets took center stage while House managers argued that his ongoing efforts to “prevent theft” led directly to the Capitol riot.
In a sense, they were trying to prove their case yesterday with material that was made public, simply by putting it all together.
And they crowned the presentation with previously unseen security footage of the police riot and radio communications, which were absolutely frightening because they prove how close the country has come to a massacre under the dome.
Thus, the Democrats won in the optics, but not necessarily in the law or in the Constitution. Of course, Trump mounted a relentless crusade after November 3 to prove, without evidence that could convince any court or his own Department of Justice, that the election was rigged. We have all seen this with our own eyes.
But whether he wanted his supporters to commit violence during the January 6 uprising is a much more difficult issue.
What was surprising, however, now that we all had a three-week break from Trump’s media dominance, was the sound and fury of him as president, the familiar New York cadence insisting repeatedly that he was stolen.
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We were all numb, both critical and supportive, in the face of his fiercest rhetoric. But there he was again, talking about fraud, talking about how he would never give up, never surrender, in contesting Joe Biden’s apparent victory.
House administrators started the timeline months before the election, while the president thundered against the ballots in the mail and as “the only way to lose” is if the other side cheats. Then the post-election barrage insisting that he had won an “overwhelming victory”. Then he urged his supporters to come to Washington on the day that Congress would certify the results, saying things would be “wild”.
Democrats also showed Trump attacking Republicans who would not side with him as weak RINOs, and highlighted the call for pressure on Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to “find” more than 11,000 votes for him. That call just became the subject of a criminal investigation in Georgia. They recounted how he once told the Proud Boys to “step back and wait”.
And to top it off, managers joked about the way Trump tried to push Mike Pence – who would later take refuge in the Capitol – to refuse to accept the Electoral College vote.
Finally, there was his speech to the supporters on the day of the siege. As manager Jamie Raskin said, “He told them to fight like hell and they brought us to hell that day.”
It was an effective political theater. But did this prove that Donald Trump was, as the managers claim, the “chief instigator”? Did he “fan the flame of violence,” as Del. Stacey Plaskett said?
In other words, when Trump released a video during the violence, did we focus on the “go home” part or when he said to the protesters “we love you. Are you very special”?
Did Trump flirt with violent supporters or actively encourage them to break the law?
Late in the afternoon, viewers heard the sound of the audio as the Capitol police called for help: “They are throwing metal poles at us.” “They are starting to launch explosives.” “This is now effectively a riot.”
And what was exciting about the filming of the security camera and the body is that it showed what the attack was like inside, while lawmakers rushed to safety while criminals, some of them armed, invaded the corridors, some looking for Nancy coins Pelosi.
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It was an indictment from the prosecutor’s office, as Trump’s lawyers didn’t stand a chance during the long afternoon. They will undoubtedly denounce the violence and say that the former president never intended to unleash such a siege, or simply repeat that the trial is unconstitutional.
But those who watched yesterday will not forget what they saw. And we, as a country, must never forget.