WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s legal team has completely distorted his comments from the rally that preceded the Capitol invasion last month, taking advantage of the only instance in which Trump spoke of peaceful protest in his “fight like hell” taken out of anger and resentment.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael van der Veen, accused Democratic House impeachment managers of showing selectively edited scenes of violence and Trump’s words on January 6.
Even so, he ignored the incendiary substance and the content of that staged speech, as well as the president’s words of affection for the attackers later, while they still sought out lawmakers and plundered their posts. He also ignored the fact that all of Trump’s provocations that day and the weeks before had the lie of a stolen election at its core.
Another Trump lawyer, Bruce Castor, denied that the siege was an uprising, saying it was an “art term” not deserved by the events of that day. It is actually a term for dictionaries and legal texts, and what happened on January 6 was an insurrection.
A look at the rhetoric of the Senate impeachment trial, where Trump is accused of inciting the capitol encirclement before Congress asserts his defeat for Joe Biden in the presidential election:
VAN DER VEEN: “No thinking person could seriously believe that the president’s 6 January speech at Elipse was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection. … Nothing in the text could be interpreted as encouraging, condoning or encouraging illegal activities of any kind. Far from promoting the insurrection against the United States, the president’s comments explicitly encouraged those present to exercise their rights in a peaceful and patriotic manner. ”
THE FACTS: This characterization is not like Trump’s speech. For more than an hour, Trump defended the case that he and his supporters at the rally were “deceived” and “defrauded” in the “defrauded” election by a “criminal company” made up of some of the “weak” lawmakers that insurrectionists were about to face.
As for Trump “explicitly” encouraging non-violence, as the lawyer said, the president’s only gesture in his speech was this fleeting comment, lost in the winds of that day’s fury: “I know everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol building to make their voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic way. ”
There were no other approximate calls for calm, order or respect for the institutions that Trump attacked in his speech like a “swamp”.
“This was the only time, the only time President Trump used the word ‘peaceful’ or any suggestion of nonviolence,” said Mrs Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the Democratic impeachment managers, during the trial. “President Trump used the word ‘fight’ or ‘fight’ 20 times.”
Your count is correct. In addition, Trump thanked his supporters when they shouted, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! “
To be sure, not all of Trump’s “fight” words were about the march to the Capitol. Some were about the political struggle to overturn a just and certified election he lost or about his other struggles in Washington.
But he sent his followers to Capitol with these words: “If you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country anymore”.
This, after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the crowd, “We are going to do the trial by combat.”
That, after Trump summoned his followers to Washington in the first place with the promise: “Be there, it will be wild!”
At the rally, Trump woke his followers with words like these:
– “Let the weak out. This is a moment of strength. This referred to Republicans in Congress who did not agree with their effort to subvert the election.
– “You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” This was specifically for the protesters.
– “When you catch someone in a fraud, you are allowed to follow very different rules.” Despite that observation, van der Veen argued on Friday that “the whole premise” of Trump’s speech at the rally was that the democratic process should “proceed according to the letter of the law.”
– “You will have an illegitimate president. This is what you will have, and we cannot let that happen. ”A reference to Biden’s rise to the presidency if he were not prevented.
– “We are going to the Capitol,” Trump said to his followers, “to try to give them the kind of pride and boldness they need to retake our country. So, let’s go down Pennsylvania Avenue. ”In fact, he didn’t go with them.
For all of this, his attorney Friday said that Trump had “dedicated almost all of his speech to an extensive discussion” of the voting process.
During the ensuing confusion, Trump made a video telling the attackers that it was time to “go home”. Only when the violence was underway did he emphasize the need for “law and order” and “peace”. But he added: “We love you. You are very special people. ”Others are“ so bad and mean ”.
He later followed up with a tweet that expressed no concern about the deadly consequences of the siege. He seemed to see justice in what had happened.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred overwhelming electoral victory is so unceremoniously and cruelly withdrawn from great patriots who have been treated badly and unfairly for so long,” he wrote. “Go home with love and in peace. Remember this day forever! “
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CASTOR: “Clearly, there was no insurrection. Insurrection is a term of art, defined in the law, it involves the conquest of a country … a parallel government taking control of the TV stations and having some plan on what you will do when you finally take power ”.
THE FACTS: It was a classic insurrection.
As “defined by law”, an insurrection is “the act or instance of esp revolt. violently against civil or political authority or against an established government, ”according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law.
According to the US Code, the crime of insurrection is committed by “Anyone who incites, sets foot, watches or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or its laws, or gives help or comfort to it” .
In addition to the law and legal texts, insurrection is defined by the Webster’s Dictionary of New World College, which is used by The Associated Press, as “an uprising against established authority; rebellion; revolt.”
On January 6, the attackers stood up physically and violently against the established authorities – Congress, while it fulfilled its constitutional duties surrounded and protected by US government officials and police. Many in the siege were intent on preventing Congress from asserting Trump’s defeat.
An insurrection is commonly understood as a short-lived uprising that fails, like this one. Castor may have mistaken an insurrection for a coup d’état, suggesting a more organized and advanced effort to seize power, perhaps involving a parallel government ready to take over. January 6 was not that.
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EDITOR’S NOTE – A look at the truth of the claims of political figures.
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