that the result would be violence the evidence is overwhelming the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates this. a few points on this donald trump knew the people he was inciting leading up to january the 6th he saw all the violence they were capable of he had a pattern and practice of praising and encouraging supporters of violence never condemning it it is not a coincidence that those same people the proud boys the organizer of the trump caravan the supporters and speakers at the 2nd 1000000 magen march all showed up on january the 6th and donald trump's behavior was different this was not just in a cut a comment by an official or a politician fighting for a cause this was months of cultivating a base of people who were violent praising that violence and then leading them

leading that violence that rage straight to a joint session of congress where he knew his vice president was presiding and donald trump had warnings about the crowd in front of him on january 6th there were detailed posts on line of attack plans law enforcement warned that these posts were real threats and even made arrests in the days leading up to the attack there were credible reports that many would be armed and ready to attack the capital despite these credible warnings of serious dangerous threats to our capital when the crowd was standing in front of the president ready to take orders and attack he said we're going to the capital and we fight we fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore here's a short clip. what do you want to call them give me a name give me what you probably as i said would you like me can do you proud

process and write proud of my words stand back and stand by them but. it is something to see the way our people that you know they were protecting his bus yesterday. must heed hundreds of cars strong trucks trucks and the american flag this is you see something americans like. oh yeah bob barker we promised. i would not however i think there are. there were destroyed. but i think. bob. carter better job it says.

2 7 big. because you'll never take back our country with a weak this you have to show strength and you have to be strong. senators the violence on january the 6th was demonstrably foreseeable trump even said so himself at 6 o 1 pm the day of the attack the last thing he said before he went to sleep quote these are the things that happened that happened and quote he foresaw this and he admitted as much that brings me to my final point the insurrectionist defense counsel has suggested these people came here on their own the defense brief states that the insurrection is quote did so for their own accord and for their own

reasons and are being criminally prosecuted it is true that some insurrectionists are being prosecuted but it is not true that they did so of their own accord and for their own reasons the evidence makes clear the exact opposite that they did this for donald trump at his invitation at his direction at his command they said this before the attack during the attack they said that after the attack leading up to january the 6th in post after post the president's supporters confirmed this was for donald trump it was at his direction one supporter wrote and i quote if congress illegally certifies biden tromp would have absolutely no choice but to demand us to storm the capitol and kill slash beat them up for it they even say publicly openly and proudly that proc president trump would help them

commandeer the national guard so all they have to do is overwhelm 2000 capitol police officers. during his speech on january the 6th trump supporters chanted his words back to him they even live tweeted his commands as ms de gette showed you during the attack the insurrectionists at the capitol chanted donald trump's words from his tweets rallies and from the 6th speech of the 6 they held signs that that said and chanted fight for trump stop the steel they read his tweets over bullhorns amplifying his demands another riot or while live streaming the insurrection from the capitol said quote he'll be happy we're fighting for trump. what's more the insurrectionists were not hiding they believed they were following the orders from our commander in chief they felt secure enough in the legitimacy of

their actions to take selfies to post photos and videos on social media after the attack riot or after riot or confirmed this to generosity in who was later for her role in the insurrection said quote i thought i was following my president i thought we were following what we were called to do and president trump requested that we be in d.c. on the 6th when it became clear that donald trump would not protect them some of his supporters said they felt duped they felt tricked listen to some of this evidence. even if they think for a 2nd it that they're going to get away with it today to if they got another thing coming. because today is just a day. and today is just the beginning. they haven't

seen the resistance until they have seen a patriot fight for their could say. if you die today our news party news will live this is the parties will withhold it is on the record the every day train workers close as far as 47 describe the scope of those things into evidence as a reference and try. new evidence is not permitted in closing argument references to such no evidence will be struck at who wields time

mr president the statement was in evidence the slide was not so we will withdraw the slide but the statement was in evidence. they told you themselves they were following the president's orders and you'll see something clearly donald trump knew who these people were as the slide shows the people he cultivated whose violence he praised were all there on january the 6th the proud boys who donald trump told to stand back and stand by in september of 2020 keith levy organizer of the trump caravan that tried to drive the biden campaign bus off the road katrina pierson the speaker at the 2nd 1000000 maggot march they were all there.

the video you're about to see is in the record. 10 correction the record did include appropriately the last video so we will keep that in the record and i will keep it in my closing remarks. can we play the next video.

well we're just watching proceedings now in the senate in this the 2nd impeachment trial of former president donald trump taking place we've been hearing closing arguments a specific the from impeachment manager madelyne dean and so we've just been listening to the proceedings that are underway there and of course we'll continue with that very shortly we are at 900 g.m.t. actually it's just 10 past the hour at the moment now earlier on the senate voted

to allow the inclusion of witnesses after house republican cheney who era butler offered up new information regarding trump's reaction to the siege of the capitol on january 6th. but then in some. dramatic fascinating developments. after emergency consultations the decision was made to read the congressman's statement into the record rather than to pose help bring in other witnesses so basically the decision was made that witnesses would not be called. in the trial. and that is where we are at the moment. it's not the involvement of witnesses in the trial i think we can say with some certainty would not affect the outcome because we know that it's going to result in

donald trump's acquittal but nonetheless there has been some criticism has been some scrutiny of this with perhaps the feeling that an opportunity has been missed because it would have presented it would have allowed the democrats to continue with this sort of meticulous sequencing of what took place because of course this is a very much political process but also the american public watching this very closely and so it would be a chance to provide more insight into the events the shocking events of that day something that many americans would want to learn about and want to see so now the decision has been made that when his witnesses will not be called but the proceedings as still under way here in the senate.

so. the search will be order.

to. resume continue. thank you mr president i have to say that of all the trials i have ever been a part of this is certainly one of them. as the slides show the people he called debated whose violence he praised were all there on january the 6th the proud boys who donald trump told to stand back and stand by in september of 2020 keith levy the organizer of the trump caravan that tried to drive the biden campaign bus off the road katrina pierson the speaker at the 2nd 1000000 magen march they were all there. here is one final clip also submitted in the record i think what you saw the.

senators some of the insurrectionists are facing criminal charges donald trump was acting as our commander in chief he was our president he used his office and the authority it commands to incite an attack and when congress and the constitution were under attack he abandoned his duties violated his oath failing to preserve protect and defend that is why we are here because the president of the united states donald j. trump incited and directed thousands of people to attack the legislative branch he knew what his supporters were capable of he inflamed them sent them down pennsylvania avenue not on any old day but on the day we were certifying the election results as they were banging on our doors he failed to defend us because this is what he wanted he wanted to remain in power. for that crime against the republic he must be held accountable senators the insurrectionist are still

listening for and i must admit until we were preparing for this trial i didn't know the extent of many of these facts i witnessed the horror but i didn't know i didn't know how deliberate the president's planning was how he had invested in it how many times he incited his supporters with these lies how carefully and consistently he incited them to violence on january the 6th while many of us may have tuned out his rallies i also did not know the extent that his followers were listening or hanging on his every word and honestly i did not know how close the mob actually came to their violent ends that they were just steps away from all of us that the death toll toll could have been much higher but for the bravery of men and women who protected us. but now we know we know the bravery of people like officer

goodman and all the men and women of the capitol police of the custody and who with pride and a sense of duty in their work cleaned up shattered glass splintered wood and blood stained floors we know the sacrifice of life and limb we know what donald trump did we know what he failed to do though it is difficult to bear witness and face the reality of what happened in these halls what happens if we don't confront these facts what happens if there is no accountability. for those who say we need to get past this we need to come together we need to unify if we don't set this right and call it what it was the highest of constitutional crimes by the president of the united states. the past will not be past the past will become our future for my grandchildren and for their children senators we

are in a dialogue with history a conversation with our past with a hope for our future 234 years from now it may be that no one person here among us is remembered and yet what we do here what is being asked of each of us here in this moment will be remembered history has found us i ask that you not look the other way. and never to bring up mr new groups.

mr president. distinguished senators there's an old quote from henry clay son of kentucky that courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones that strike the deepest in a grateful and appreciating heart i want to say on behalf of all the house managers that we are very grateful for the courtesies you've extended to us to the president's council during the course of the straw you heard my colleague manager dean go through the overwhelming evidence that makes clear that president trump must be convicted and disqualified for his high crime i'm not going to repeat that evidence it speaks for itself earlier in this trial you might recall a few days ago that i mentioned my expectation that president trumps lawyers might

do everything they could to avoid discussing the facts of this case and i can understand why. i mean the evidence that all of us presented that manager dean just summarized. it's pretty devastating and so rather than address it the president has offered up distractions excuse anything but actually trying to defend against the facts they said things like president trump is now a private citizen so the criminal justice system can deal with them or that we haven't set a clear standard for incitement they talked a lot about due process and that all politicians say words like fight i'd like to take a minute to explain why each of those distractions are precisely that

distractions and why they do not prevent in any way the senate from convicting president trump number one every president is one day a private citizen again so i mean the argument that because president trump has left office he shouldn't be impeached for conduct committed while he was in office doesn't make sense i mean why would the constitution include the impeachment power at all if the criminal justice system serves as a suitable alternative once a president leaves office it wouldn't impeachment is a remedy separate and apart from the criminal justice system and for good reason the presidency i mean it comes with special powers extraordinary powers not bestowed on ordinary citizens and if those powers are abused they can cause great

damage to our country and they have to be dealt with in a separate forum this forum. it would be unwise to suggest that going forward the only appropriate response to constitutional offenses committed by a president are criminal charges when the president returns to private life that's not the kind of political system any of us want and it's not the kind of constitutional system the framers intended 2nd it is true. we haven't cited criminal statutes establishing elements of incitement because again this isn't a criminal trial it's not a criminal case president trump is charged with a constitutional offense and you are tasked with determining whether or not he

committed that high crime as understood by our framers so the relevant question which president trumps lawyers would have you ignore is would our framers have considered a president inciting a violent mob to attack our government while seeking to stop the certification of our elections would they have considered that an impeachable offense who among us who among us really thinks the answer to that question is no 3rd due process so just to be absolutely clear the house with the sole power of impeachment determines what the process looks like in the house and the senate does the same for the trial. during this trial the

president has counsel they've argued very vigorously on his behalf we had a full presentation of evidence adversarial presentations motions the president was invited to testify he declined president was invited to provide exculpatory evidence he declined you can't claim there's no due process when you won't participate in the process. and we know this case isn't one that requires a complicated legal analysis of you all you lived it. the managers and we lived it our country lived it the president in public view right out in the open incited a violent mob a mob that temporarily at least stopped us from certifying an election

if there were ever an exit circumstance this is it. number 4 we all know that president trump's defense as we predicted spent a lot of time all the time comparing his conduct to other politicians using words like fighting the course you saw the hours of video. as i said on thursday we trust you to know the difference because what you will not find in those video montage is at they showed you is any of those speeches those remarks commentating in a violent in sarette in on our nation's capital that's the difference the president spent months inflaming his supporters to believe that the election

had been stolen from him from them which was not true he summoned the mob assembled the mob and when the violence erupted he did nothing to stop it instead inciting it further. senators all of these arguments offered by the president have one fundamental thing in common one they have nothing to do with whether or not factually whether or not the president incited this attack. they've given you a lot of distractions so they don't have to defend what happened here on that terrible day and they do that because they believe those distractions are going to work but you'll ignore the president's conduct instead of confronting it i think that

are wrong. some of you know this already. i'm the youngest member of our manager team by quite a few years so perhaps. perhaps some a bit naive but i just don't believe that i really don't i don't believe their effort is going to work and here is why because i know what this body is capable of i may not have witnessed it but i've read about it in the history books i've seen the c.-span footage archives subtypes watched him for hours and yes i've actually done that and the history of our country in those books and in those tapes the history of this country has been defined right here on this floor the 13th amendment the amendment

abolishing slavery was passed in this very room in this room not figurative lee literally where you all sit and where i stand in 1964 this body with the help of senators like john sherman cooper and so many others this body secured passage of the civil rights act we made the decision to enter world war 2 from this chamber we've certainly had our struggles but we've always risen to the occasion when it mattered the most. not by ignoring injustice or cow cowering to bullies and threats but by doing the right thing by trying to do the right thing and that's why so many nations around the world aspire to be like america they stand up to dictators and

autocrats and tyrants because america is a guiding light for them a north star they do so they look to us because we have been a guiding light a north star in these moments because the people who sat in your chairs when confronted with choices that define us rose to the occasion i want to offer one more example of a decision made in this room by this body that resonated with me the 1st day i stood up in this trial i did mention that i was the son of immigrants like many of you and many senators graciously approached me after my presentation and asked me where my parents were from i told those who asked that my folks were from east africa. in 19861906 this body considered a bill to override president reagan's veto of legislation imposing

sanctions on south africa during apartheid 2 senators who sit in this room one democrat and one republican voted to override that veto that vote was not about gaining political favor in fact it was made despite potentially losing political favor and i have to imagine that that vote was cast like the decisions before it because there are moments that transcend party politics and that require us to put country above our party because the consequences of not doing so are just too great senators this is one of those moments.