House shares security footage of mayor Nancy Pelosi’s employees hiding from a violent pro-Trump crowd
Pelosi was evacuated from the compound before the crowd hovered around his office suite, his team hiding quietly behind closed doors.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Prosecutors unveiled a chilling new security video at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday, showing the crowd of protesters storming the Capitol, smashing windows and doors and searching menacingly for Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while the police begged for help on their radios.
In the unpublished recordings, the promoters of the Chamber showed emotional scenes of how the protesters were close to the leaders of the country, walking through the corridors shouting “Hang Mike Pence”, some equipped with combat equipment. Outside, the mob mounted an improvised gallows.
Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, but the graphic compilation has resulted in a more complete narrative, a recount moment by moment of one of the most alarming days in the country. In addition to the obvious chaos and danger, he offered new details about the attackers, scenes of police heroism and whispers and cries for help from the team.
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In a dramatic moment, the video shows police officers shooting the crowd through a broken window, killing a San Diego woman, Ashli Babbitt. In another, a police officer is seen being crushed by the crowd. Five people died.
The vice president, who chaired a session to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump – thus winning Trump’s criticism – is shown being rushed to a safe location, where he took refuge in an office with his family just 30 meters away of the protesters. Pelosi was evacuated from the compound before the crowd hovered around his office suite, his team hiding quietly behind closed doors.
The crowd-dominated police frantically announce “we’ve lost the line” and ask the police to protect themselves. One died later.
House managers display video evidence during second impeachment
Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial began in the Senate with a graphic video of the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.
Although most Senate jurors have already decided on acquittal or sentencing, they were fascinated and sat in silence. Protesters searched their desks in the same chamber where the impeachment trial is being held. Screams of audio and video filled the camera. A Republican, James Lankford, of Oklahoma, bowed his head, a Republican colleague placing his hand comfortably on his arm.
“They did this because Donald Trump sent them on this mission,” said prosecutor Stacey Plaskett, the Democratic delegate representing the Virgin Islands.
“President Trump put a target on their back and his mob invaded the Capitol to hunt them down.”
Some senators acknowledged that it was the first time that they realized how dangerously close the country is to serious danger.
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“When you see all the pieces together, just the full awareness of it, the enormity of it, threatens, not only for us as people, as legislators, but the threat to the institution and what Congress represents, is worrying,” said A Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. “Very disturbing.”
The impressive presentation opened the first full day of arguments at the trial, while prosecutors argued that Trump was not an “innocent bystander” but the “chief instigator” of the deadly Capitol riot, a president who spent months spreading electoral lies and building a crowd of supporters prepared for his call to prevent Biden’s victory.
House Democrats showed piles of evidence from the former president himself – hundreds of Trump tweets and comments that culminated in his rallying cry on January 6 to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to nullify his defeat. Trump then did nothing to contain the violence and watched with “glee”, they said, as the crowd ransacked the iconic building.
“It may have looked like chaos and madness to us, but there was a method to madness that day,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., The chief prosecutor, who appointed Trump as the instigator.
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“And when his mob invaded and occupied the Senate and attacked the House and assaulted the security forces, he watched TV as a reality show. He had fun with it.”
In one scene, a Capitol Police officer redirects Senator Mitt Romney, R-Utah, down a corridor to avoid the crowd. It was the same officer, Eugene Goodman, who was praised as a hero for attracting protesters away from the Senate doors.
“It tears your heart and brings tears to your eyes,” said Romney after watching the video. He said he did not realize how close he was to danger.
The day’s proceedings proceeded after Tuesday’s emotional start, which angered the former president when his lawyers filed a sinuous defense and failed to suspend the trial for constitutional reasons. Some allies called for another shake-up in their legal team.
Chronology of the US Capitol riot on January 6
What started as a parliamentary and democratic exercise of peaceful transfer of power, has evolved into death, destruction and chaos.
Trump is the first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office and the first to receive two impeachment charges. He is accused of “inciting insurrection” with inflamed words that his defense lawyers say are protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and only figures of speech.
Prosecutors are arguing that Trump’s words were part of the “big lie” – his relentless efforts to sow doubts about the election results. This started long before votes were tabulated, encouraging his followers to “stop the theft”, although there was no evidence of substantial fraud.
Trump knew very well what would happen when he spoke into the microphone at the White House outdoor rally that day, when Congress met to certify Biden’s victory, said Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo.
“This was not just a speech,” he said.
Security remained extremely tight on Wednesday at the Capitol, surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by National Guard troops.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would not attend the trial.
The difficulty faced by Trump’s defenders became apparent at first, as they supported the trial process, unlike any other, rather than the substance of the case against the former president. They said the constitution does not allow impeachment on that date, after he left the White House.
Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday’s vote to proceed, the legal issue may resonate with Republicans eager to absolve Trump without being seen as tolerating his behavior.
Defense attorney Bruce Castor encouraged senators on Tuesday to be “cold” when evaluating the arguments.
A frustrated Trump has revived his demands for his lawyers to focus on his baseless allegations of electoral fraud, repeatedly calling former White House adviser Peter Navarro, who told the Associated Press in an interview that he agreed. He’s calling Trump to fire his legal team.
“If he doesn’t make a correction halfway here, he will miss this Super Bowl,” said Navarro, a reference to public opinion, and not the unlikely possibility of conviction.
While six Republicans joined the Democrats to vote and proceed with the trial, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds limit of 67 votes that would be required for sentencing.
Minds didn’t seem to be changing, even after watching the graphic video.
“I have said many times that the president’s rhetoric is sometimes overheated, but this is not a referendum on whether you agree with everything the president says or tweets,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was among the leaders the effort to challenge the Electoral College count. “This is, instead, a legal process.”
Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Another leader of the election challenge said, “Nothing new here for me at the end of the day.”
As the country dulls with the breach of Trump-era civic norms, prosecutors sought to remind senators and the nation how extraordinary it was to have a U.S. president working to discredit the election.
In hundreds of tweets, comments and interviews already in the spring and summer, Trump was spreading false allegations about the election and refusing to commit to the peaceful transfer of power when it was over, they said.
The public scenes of the attack were distilled in highly personal terms, first when Raskin burst into tears on Tuesday, describing his family hiding on Capitol Hill that day. On Wednesday, Neguse, the son of immigrants, remembered telling his father how proud he was to return to Congress that night to complete the job of certifying the election.
Trump’s second impeachment trial is expected to diverge from a long and complicated case a year ago. In that case, Trump was accused of privately lobbying Ukraine to dig up the dirt from Biden, then a Democratic rival for the presidency. It can end in half the time.