of a difference between the accused and the jurors when it comes to reckless rhetoric in terms of variety and that's with the defense is going to do, it's going to show that there is this type of rhetoric that is common. the other problem facing the democrats -- i should say the house managers is that they didn't do anything the last few weeks to lock in testimony, they used a snap impeachment to hold a hearing -- >> harris: jonathan, i'm going to step in for just a moment, we have just seen the gavel at this point and we don't want to miss any of these proceedings, this is the opening argument section of the senate trial for impeachment. we do know that there will be the invocation read and that's what's happening right now so we are going to continue to talk, we know we are in a minute or so of this whole thing starting. jonathan, thank you. i want to get to emily compagno,

my cohost to get her thoughts as well. >> emily: thank you, harris and to echo what jonathan turley is saying here, to remind viewers, yesterday the argument was over the threshold issue, it was a procedural question of whether this entire proceeding was unconstitutional. today we are going to see the arguments on the merits. remember as well of the democrats have charged multiple elements as it is within this one charge of incitement of insurrection and in fact, this is part of what trump's defense team is arguing, this is procedurally inadequate to to have so many charges under one account so expect to see, if we can expect the same style it will be compelling, persuasive and highly organized on the democrat house impeachment managers side going down one by one all of these charges they have made. that leads to the president, then-president trump inciting insurrection. what was particularly

persuasive, congressman joe negus of colorado, i think it's sort of emblematic of the strength of the democrat's case today. >> harris: you see them taking the pledge of allegiance right now so they are very close at this point. i'm going to go back to you, bret, you end martha will be helping to lead our coverage today and showing the nation what is coming up. this is pretty much right on time, your last quick thought? >> bret: well, again, it's historic. this is the second impeachment for donald trump. now, former president, the first time former president has faced this trial and these arguments today are going to be painful to go through, both sides have said that what happened on january 6 was heinous and we will see how much this resonates and how much the trump team can push back when they get the ball tomorrow. >> harris: we see the sergeant of arms making a proclamation right now.

just kind of leading everybody through what you are looking at and emily, we got to hear from you a little bit, i know we have day again leslie marshall with us, too, don't know how many comments can... well, i tried, we are moving on now. day two of the trump impeachment trial, the second one. this is chuck schumer, the senator. let's watch. >> with a break around 6:00 p.m. >> pursuant to the provisions come out of senate resolution 47, the managers for the house of representatives have 16 hours to make the presentation of their case. the senate will now hear you and we recognize mr. manager raskin to begin the presentation of the case of the house of representatives. >> thank you very much. mr. president, members of the senate, good morning, good day. as some people think this trial is a contest of lawyers or even

worse, a competition between political parties, it's a moment of truth for america. my late father marcus raskin once wrote, democracy needs a ground to stand upon with that ground to the truth, america needs the truth about ex-president trump's roll in inciting the insurrection on january 6 because it threatened our government and disrupted and easily could have destroyed the peaceful transfer of power in the united states for the first time in 233 years. it was suggested yesterday by president trump's counsel that this is really like a very bad accident or a natural disaster where lots of people get injured or killed and society is just out looking for someone to blame and that's natural and normal human reaction according to president's council but he said that's totally unfair in this case.

president trump, according to mr. castor essentially as an innocent bystander who got swept up in this catastrophe but did nothing wrong. in this assertion, mr. castor unerringly echoes his client, president trump, who declared after the insurrection that his conduct in the affair was totally appropriate. and therefore we can only assume he could do and would do the exact same thing again because he said his conduct was totally appropriate. so now the factual inquiry of the trial is squarely posed for us, the jurisdictional constitutional issue is gone. whether you were persuaded by the president's constitutional analysis yesterday or not, the senate voted to reject it and so the senate is now properly exercising its jurisdiction and sitting as a court of impeachment conducting a trial on the facts. we are having a trial on the

facts. the house says ex-president donald trump incited a violent insurrection against congress and the constitution and the people. the president's lawyers and the president say his conduct was totally appropriate and he is essentially an innocent victim of circumstances like the other innocent victims that we will see getting caught up in all of the violence and chaos over the next several days. the evidence will be for you to see and hear and digest. the evidence will show you that ex-president trump was no innocent bystander. the evidence will show that he clearly incited the january 6th insurrection. it will show that donald trump surrendered his roll as commander in chief and became the insider in chief. of a dangerous insurrection and this was, as one of our

colleagues put it on january 6th itself, the greatest betrayal of the presidential oath in the history of the united states. the evidence will show you that he saw it coming and was not remotely surprised by the violence, and when the violence inexorably and inevitably came as predicted and overran this body and the house of representatives with chaos, we will show you that he completely abdicated his duty as commander in chief to stop the violence. and protect their government and protect our officers and protect our people. he violated his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution, the government and the people of the united states. the evidence will show you that he assembled inflamed and incited his followers to descend upon the capital to stop the

steel, to block vice president pence and congress from finalizing his opponent's victory. over him. who will show that he had been warned that these followers were prepared for violent attack targeting alaska at the capital through media reports, law enforcement reports and even arrests. in short, we will prove that the impeached president was no innocent bystander whose conduct was "totally appropriate" and should be a standard for future presidents. but that he incited this attack and he saw it coming. to us it may have felt like chaos and madness but there was method and the madness that day. this was an organized attack on the counting of the electoral college votes in joint session of the united states congress, under the 12th

amendment and electoral action to prevent vice president mike pence and prevent us from counting sufficient electoral college votes to certify joe biden's victory of 306-232 in the electoral college. a margin that the president trump had declared a landslide in 2016. when my colleague speaks after me he will set forth in detail the exact road map of all the evidence in the case. my fellow house managers and i will take you to that evidence step-by-step so that everyone can see exactly how these events unfold. but i want to tell you a few key reasons right now that we know this case is not about blaming an innocent bystander for the horrific violence and harm that took place on january 6th.

this is about holding accountable the person singularly responsible for inciting the attack. let's start with december 12, you will see during this trial a man who praised and encouraged and cultivated violence. we have just begun to fight, he says. more than a month after the election is taken place. and that's before the second million maga march, a rally that ended in serious violence and the burning of a church parade on december 19th, 18 days or for january 6, he told his base about where the battle would be that they would fight next. january 6 would be wild, he promised. "be there, will be wild" said the president of the united states of america. and that, too, turned out to be true. in the days that followed,

donald trump continue to aggressively promote january 6th to his followers. the event was scheduled at the precise time that congress would be meeting in joint session to count the electoral college votes and finalize the 2020 presidential election. in fact, in the days leading up to this you would learn that there were countless social media posts, news stories and most importantly credible reports from the fbi and capitol police that the thousands gathering for the president's "save america" march were violent, organized with weapons and targeting the capital. this mob got organized so openly because, as they would later scream in these halls, and as they posted on forums before the attack, they were sent here by the president, they were invited here by the president of the united states of america. and when they showed up knowing of these reports that the crowd was angry and it was armed, here

is what donald trump told us. president trump flipped the crowd into a frenzy, exhorting followers "if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." and then he aimed straight at the capital, declaring "you will never take back our country with weakness, you have to show strength and you have to be strong. "he told them to fight like hell and they brought us hell on that day. this assault unfolded live on television before a horrified nation. according to those around him at the time, this is how president trump reportedly responded to the attack that we saw him insight. in public.

delight, enthusiasm, confusion as to why others around him weren't as happy as he was. trump incited the january 6th attack and when his mob overran and occupied the senate and attacked the house a salted law enforcement, he watched it on tv like a reality show, he reveled in it. and he did nothing to help us as commander in chief, instead he served as the insider in chief, sending tweets that only further incited the rampaging mob, he made statements lauding and sympathizing with the insurrectionist's. at 4:17:00 p.m., over three hours after the beginning of this seizure, for the very first time he spoke out loud, not on twitter, spoke out loud to the american people. here's what he said. >> i know your pain, i know you're hurt.

>> you might be saying, all right, the president is going to console us now, he's going to reassure america. he knows our pain, he knows we are hurt, we've just seen these horrific images of officers being impaled and smashed over the head. we've just been under attack for three hours. here's what he actually goes on say. >> i know your pain, i know you're hurt. we had an election that was stolen from us, it was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. >> you think he's about to decry the mayhem and violence, the unprecedented spectacle of his mob attack on the u.s. capitol but he's still promoting the big lie that was responsible for inflaming and inciting the mob in the first place. if anyone ever had a doubt as to his focus that day, it was not to defend us, it was not to

console us, it was to praise and sympathize and commiserate with the rampaging mob, to continue to act as insider in chief, not commander in chief, by telling the mob that their election had been stolen from them. even then after that vicious attack, he continued to spread the big lie. and as everyone here knows, joe biden won by more than 7 million votes and 306-232 in the electoral college but donald trump refused to accept his loss even after this attack and he celebrated the people who violently interfered with the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in american history and did that at his urging. and when he did, in this video, finally tell them to go home and peace, he added this message. "we love you.

you are very special." distinguished members of the senate, this is a day that will live in disgrace in american history. that is, unless you oust donald trump. because this is what he tweeted before he went to bed that night. at 6:01:00 p.m. not consoling the nation, not reassuring everyone that the government was secure, not a single word that entire day condemning the violent insurrection. is what he says. "these are the events that happen when a secret landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly and unfairly treated for so long. go home with love and in peace, remember this day forever." these are the things and events that happened when a sacred

landslide election victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away from great patriots. in other words, this was all perfectly natural and foreseeable to donald trump. at the beginning of the day he told you it was coming, and at the end of the day he basically said i told you this would happen and then he adds, remember this day forever. not as a day of disgrace and a day of horror and trauma as the rest of us remember it but as a day of celebration, a day of commemoration and if we let it be, it will be a day of continuation, a call to action and a rallying cry for the next round of insurrectionary justice. because all of this was totally appropriate. senators, the stakes of this trial could not be more serious. every american, young and old and in between, is invited to participate with us in this essential journey to find the facts and share the truth.

trials are public events in a democracy and no trial is more public or significant than an impeachment trial. because the insurrection brought shocking violence, bloodshed and pain in the nation's capital, we will be showing relevant clips of the mob's attacks on police officers and other innocent people, we do urge parents and teachers to exercise close review of what young people are watching here and please watch along with them if you are allowing them to watch. the impeachment managers will try to give warnings before the most graphic and disturbing violence that took place is shown. we believe that the manager's car brands of a meticulous presentation will lead to one powerful and irresistible conclusion. donald trump committed a massive crime against our constitution and our people and the worst violation of the presidential oath of office in the history of the united states of america. for this, he was impeached by

the house of representatives and he must be convicted by the united states senate. before i close, i want to address a constitutional issue still lingering from yesterday's argument. the president obviously is still finding ways to change the subject and talk about anything other than his responsibility for inciting the attack, we heard yesterday that his claim that this was perfectly appropriate because it was somehow protected by the first amendment and this little diversion caught my eye because i've been a profession or professor of constitutional law in the first amendment for decades. as we will demonstrate over the course of the trial, the factual premise and legal underpinnings of that claim are all wrong. they present president trump is merely a guy at a rally expressing a political opinion that we disagree with and now we are trying to put him in jail for it. that has nothing to do with the reality of these charges or his constitutional offense. the particular political

opinions being expressed are not why we impeach the president and i'm nothing to do with it. it makes no difference what the ideological content of the mob was and if we forgive incitement to violent insurrection by militant trump followers this week, you can be sure there were be a whole bunch of new ideological flavors coming soon. as we will demonstrate with overwhelming evidence, portraying trump as a guy on the street being punished for his ideas is a false description of his actions, his intent and the role that he played on january 6th when he willfully incited and insurrectionary mob to riot at the capitol. last week, 144 constitutional scholars including floyd abrams, a ferocious defender of free speech, charles friede, president reagan's solicitor general, stephen calabrese, cofounder of the federalist society released a statement calling the

president's first amendment argument legally frivolous, adding "we all agree that the first amendment does not prevent the senate from convicting president trump and disqualifying him from holding future office. they went on to say, no reasonable scholar or a jurist could conclude that president trump had a first amendment right to incite a violent attack on the seat of the legislative branch or to sit back and watch on television as congress was terrorized and the capital sector. incitement to violence is not protected by the first amendment, that's why most americans have dismissed donald trump's first amendment rhetoric simply by referring to justice oliver wendell holmes' handy phrase "you can't shout fire in a crowded theater" but even that time-honored principle doesn't begin to capture how off-base the argument is. this case is much worse than

someone who falsely shouts "fire" in a crowded theater. more a case where the town fire chief who is paid to put out fires sends a mob not to yell fire in a crowded theater but to actually set the theater on fire and to then, when the fire alarms go off and the calls start flooding in the fire department asking for help does nothing but sit back, encourage the mob to continue its rampage and watch the fire spread on tv with glee and delight. so then we say the fire chief should never be a allowed to hold this public job again, you are permanently disqualified and he objects. andy says, we are violating his free-speech rights just because he is pro-mob or pro-fire or whatever it may be. come on, you really don't need to go to law school to figure out what's wrong with that argument.

here is the key. undoubtedly a private person can run around on the street expressing his or her support for the enemies of the united states and advocating to overthrow the united states government. you've got a right to do that under the first amendment but if the president spent all of his days doing that, uttering the exact same words, expressing support for the enemies of the united states and overthrowing the government, is there anyone here who doubts this would be a violation of his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the united states and that he or she would be impeached for doing that? look, if you are president of the united states, you've chosen a side with your oath of office and if you break it we can impeach, convict, remove, and disqualify you permanently from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the united states. as justice scalia said once, memorably, you can't ride with the cops and root for the robbers.

and if you become insider in chief to the insurrection, you can expect to be on the payroll of commander in chief or the union. trump was the president of the united states and he had sworn to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, he had an affirmative, binding duty, one that set him apart from everyone else in the country to take care that the laws be faithfully executed including all the laws against assaulting federal officers, destroying federal properly, violently threatening members of congress and the vice president, interfering with federal elections and dozens of other federal laws that are well known to all of you. when he incited insurrection on january 6th, he broke that oath. he violated that duty. and that's why we are here today and that's why he has no credible constitutional defense.

i will tell you a final sad story in this kaleidoscope of sadness and terror and violence. one of our capital officers who defended us that day was a longtime veteran, a brave and honorable public servant who spent several hours battling the mob as part of one of those blue lines defending the capital and our democracy. for several hours straight as the marauders punched and kicked and mauled and spit upon and hit officers with baseball bats and fire extinguishers, cursed to the cops and stormed our capital, he defended us and he lived every minute of his oath of office. and afterwards, overwhelmed by emotion, he broke down in the rotunda. and he cried for 15 minutes and he shouted out, "i got called and n-word 15 times today."

and then he recorded, i sat down with one of my buddies, another black guy and tears just started streaming down my face and i said, what the f, man, is this america? that's a question before all of you in this trial. is this america? can our country and our democracy ever be the same if we don't hold accountable the person responsible for inciting the violent attacks against our country, our capital, and our democracy and all of those who serve us so faithfully and honorably? is this america? will now provide a road map of our evidentiary case.

>> mr. president, distinguished senator's, counsel, like several of you, i am a child of immigrants. and as a son of immigrants i believe firmly in my heart that the united states is the greatest republic that this world is ever known. hallmark of our republic, since the days of george washington has been the peaceful transfer

of power. for centuries we have accepted it as fact. unfortunately, sadly, we know now that we can no longer take that for granted. as lead manager raskin explained on january 6th, the peaceful transition of power was violently interrupted when a mob stormed the capital and desecrated this chamber. as you will see during the course of this trial, that mob was summoned, assembled and incited by the former president of the united states, donald trump. he did that because he wanted to stop the print transfer of power so he could obtain power even though he had lost the election. and when the violence erupted, when they were here in our

building with weapons, he did nothing to stop it. if we are to protect our republic and preevent something like this from ever happening again, he must be convicted. now, i want to be very clear about what we will show you during the course of this trial. as my fellow managers present our case to you today, tonight, tomorrow, it will be helpful to think about president trump's incitement of insurrection in three distinct parts. the provocation, the attack, and the harm. let's start with the provocation. we will show, during the course of this trial, that this attack

was provoked by the president. incited by the president. and as a result it was predictable and it was foreseeable and of course that makes sense. this mob was well-orchestrated, their conduct was intentional, they did it all in plain sight, proudly, openly and loudly. because they believed, they truly believed that they were doing this for him. that this was their patriotic duty. they even predicted that he would protect them. and for the most part, they were right. in his unique roll as commander in chief of our country and is the one person the mob was listening to and following orders from, he had the power to

stop it. and he didn't. now, some have said that president trump's remarks and speech on january 6 was just a speech. well, let me ask you this. when in our history has a speech led thousands of people to storm our nation's capital with weapons. to scale the walls, break windows, kill a capital police officer. this was not just a speech. it didn't just happen. and as you evaluate the facts that we present to you, it will become clear exactly where that mob came from. because here's the thing. president trump's words, as you

will see, on january 6th in that speech, just like the mob's actions, were carefully chosen. those words had a very specific meaning to that crowd and how do we know this? because in the weeks prior to, during and after the election, he used the same words. over and over and over again. you will hear, over and over, three things. you can see them on the screens. first, what lead manager raskin referred to as "the big lie," that the election was stolen, full of fraud, rig. you will hear, over and over, him using that lie to urge his supporters to never concede and stop this steel. and finally, you will hear the

call to arms. that it was his supporters patriotic duty to fight like hell, to do what? to stop the steal, to stop the election from being stolen by showing up in this area chamber, to stop you. to stop us. i'd respectfully ask that you remember those three phrases as you consider the evidence today. "election was stolen. stop the steal. and fight like hell because they did not just appear on january 6. let me show you what i mean, let's start with the big lie, you will see during this trial that the president realized, really, by last spring that he could lose, he might lose the election. so what did he do? he started planting the seeds to

get some of his supporters ready by saying that he could only lose the election if it was stolen. in other words, really, what he did is create a no lose scenario. either he won the election or he would have some angry supporters, not all, but some, who believed that if he lost, the election had to be rigged. and they would be angry. because he was telling americans that their vote had been stolen. and in america, our vote is our voice. so his false claims about election fraud, that was the drumbeat being used to inspire, instigate and ignite them.

to anger them. watch this clip. >> because we are not going to let this election be taken away from us, that's the only way they're going to win it. we are not going to let it happen. it's the only way we can be... it's the only way we can lose in my opinion is massive fraud. >> we all know what happened after that. he lost. he lost the election. but remember, he had a no lose scenario that i referenced earlier. he told his base that the election was stolen, as he had forecasted. and then he told them, your election has been stolen but you cannot concede, you must stop this field. >> you can't let another person steal that election from you,

all over the country people are together and holding up signs, "stop the steal." >> the democrats are trying to steal the white house, you cannot let them, you just can't let them. >> now, while he is inciting supporters he's also simultaneously doing everything he possibly can to overturn the election. first, he begins with the courts, a legitimate avenue. a legitimate avenue. to challenge the election but he ignores all of their adverse rulings, when all of his claims are thrown out. then he moves on to trying to pressure state election officials to block the election results for his opponent. even though he'd lost in their states. you will hear my fellow managers discuss that in detail. then he tries to threaten state

election officials to actually change the votes to make him the winner, even threatening criminal penalties if they refused. he had the justice department investigate his claims. and even they found no support for those claims. so he tried to persuade some members of his party and congress to block the certification of his vote with attacks in public forums. when that failed, he tried to intimidate the vice president of the united states of america. to refuse to certify the vote and send it back to the states. none of it worked. so what does he do? with his back against the wall, when all else has failed, he turns back to his supporters who

he already spent months telling them the election was stolen and he amplified it further, he turned it up a notch and told them that they had to be ready not just to stop the steal but to fight like hell. >> we are going to fight for the survival of our nation and we are going to keep on fighting. we will never surrender, we will only win. now is not the time to retreat, now is the time to fight harder than ever before. we have to go all the way and we are going to fight like hell, i will tell you right now. we will not bend, we will not break, we will not yield, we will never give in, we will never give up, we will never back down, we will never, ever surrender. >> you will see that in the months the president made these

statements, people listened. armed supporters surrounded election officials homes. the secretary of state for georgia got death threats. officials warned the president that his rhetoric was dangerous and it was going to result in deadly violence. and that's what makes this so different because when he saw firsthand the violence that his conduct was creating, he didn't stop it. he didn't condemn the violence, he incited it further. and he got more specific. he didn't just tell them to fly like hell, he told them how, where, and when, he made sure they had advance notice, 18 days advance notice, he sent his save the date for january 6th. he told them to march to the

capital and fight like hell. as january 6th, the exact same day that we were certifying the election results, what time was that rally scheduled for? the same time that this chamber was certifying the election results in joint session. when did he conclude his speech? literally moments before speaker pelosi had gaveled us into session. many of us were in the house during that joint session of congress. i was sitting two rows behind leaders schumer and leader mcconnell, i remember it vividly. and as we were standing there fulfilling our solemn oath to the constitution, the president was finishing his speech just a couple miles away. how did he conclude that infamous speech? with a final call to action.

he told them to march down pennsylvania avenue, to come here. said it was their patriotic duty because the election had been stolen. and when they heard his speech, they understood his words and what they meant because they had heard it before. let's take just a minute and really look at his words on january 6th as he spoke at the save america rally. remember, i told you you'd hear three for ages." the election was stolen," "stop the steal" and "the fight like hell." let's start with that first phrase. >> all of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen. there's never been anything like

this, theft in american history, everyone knows it. make no mistake, this election was stolen from you, for me, and from the country. >> now of course, each of you heard those words flow for. so had the crowd. the president had spent months telling his supporters that the election had been stolen and he used this speech to incite them further, to inflame them, to stop the steal, to stop the certification of the election results. >> we will never give up, we will never concede. it doesn't happen, you don't concede when there is theft involved. and to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop this deal. we will stop this deal. >> finally, the president used

the speech as a call to arms. it was not rhetorical. some of his supporters have been primed for this over many months, as you learn, days before this speech, as lead manager raskin noted, there were vast reports across all major media outlets that thousands of people would be armed, that they will be violent, you'll learn that capitol police and the fbi reported in the days leading up to the attack that thousands in the crowd would be targeting the capital specifically, that they had arrested people with guns the night before the attack on weapons charges. and this is what our commander in chief said to the crowd in

the face of those warnings. right before they came here. >> we will not let them silence your voices. we are not going to let it happen. [cheers and applause] were not going to let it happen. [crowd chanting] thank you. you have to get your people to fight. because you will never take back our country with weakness. you have to show strength and you have to be strong and we fight. we fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore. >> "you have to get your people to fight." he told them. senators, this clearly was not just one speech. it didn't just happen.

it was part of a carefully-planned, months long effort with very specific instruction, show up on january 6th and get your people to fight the certification. he incited it, it was foreseeable. and again, you don't have to take my word for it. the president's former chief of staff, a retired marine, four-star general was confirmed by this body to be the secretary of homeland security, overwhelming vote. that man was john kelly and on the day after the insurrection, he said this. >> you know the president knows who is talking to any tweets or he makes statements, he knows who he's talking to and he knows what he wants them to do and the fact that he said the things,

he's been saying the things he's been saying since the election and encouraging people, to no surprise, again, what happened yesterday. >> no surprise, think about that. no surprise. the president had every reason to know that this would happen because he assembled the mob, he summoned the mob, and he incited the mob. he knew when he took that podium on that fateful morning, that those in attendance had heated his words and they were waiting for his orders to begin fighting. and that, of course, brings me, my fellow managers, to what happened here in this building. as lead manager raskin stated, my colleagues are going to walk through the defensive january 6th and evidence in very

great detail. they are painful to watch and to recount and i'm not going to repeat the evidence now but i do want to be clear about what also happened during that terrible attack and that is this, that president trump once again failed us. because when the violence erupted when we end law enforcement officials protecting us and protecting you when we were under attack, is each of you were being evacuated from this chamber from a violent mob as we were being evacuated from the house, he could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. it was his duty as commander in chief to stop the violence and he alone had that power. not just because of his unique role as commander in chief. but because they believed that they were following his orders.

they said so. >> fight for trump! fight for trump! >> i thought i was following my president, i thought i was following what we were called to do. >> president trump requested that we be in d.c. on the sixth. >> you heard it from them. they were doing what he wanted them to do. they wouldn't have listened to you, to me, to the vice president of the united states, who they were attacking, they didn't stop in the face of law enforcement, police officers fighting for their lives to stop them, they were following the president.

he alone, our commander in chief, had the power to stop it. and he didn't. you will hear evidence tonight, tomorrow, throughout the trial about his refusal as commander in chief to respond to numerous desperate pleas on the phone, across social media, begging him to stop the attack. and you will see his relentless attack on vice president pence, who was at that very moment hiding with his family as armed extremists were chanting "hang mike pence." calling him a traitor. you will see that even when he did finally, three and a half hours into the attack, tell these people to go home in peace, he added, lead manager raskin said, i will quote.

"you're very special. we love you." think for a moment, just a moment, of the lives lost that day. of the more than 140 wounded police officers and ask yourself if as soon as this had started, president trump had simply gone on tv, just logged onto twitter and said "stop the attack," if he had done so with even half as much force as he said "stop the steal," how many lives would we have saved? sadly, he didn't do that. at the end of the day, the president was not successful in stopping certification, that we

know it. thanks to the bravery of our law enforcement and bravery of the senators in this room. each of you who still fulfill your constitutional duty even under the threat of mortal peril. but there can be no doubt of the grave harm that he caused. to our elected leaders, to us, our families, to all who work in the capital, our staff, your staff, to our brave capitol police who defend us, tirelessly. with little thanks, who believed that they had a commander in chief who would defend and protect them and instead put them in harm's way. to those killed for heeding his command, to our democracy end of the system which ensures that we have a president elected by the people. to our national security and our

standing in the world, the harm was real. the damage was real. five people lost their lives on that terrible, tragic day. a woman was shot dead 50 feet from where we later certified the election results. and for those who question just how bad it was, criminal complaints recently unsealed by the department of justice are more then revealing. you'll see one of these documents on the screen. in the charging affidavit of one of the leaders of the proud boys, we learned that members of this group said, i'm going to quote. of what they would have killed mike pence if given the chance." in another, "we learned of a tweet in real time while they were in the building stating "we

broke into the capital. we got inside. we did our part. we were looking for nancy pelosi to shoot her in the freaking brain, but we didn't find her." and for anyone who suggests otherwise, these defendants themselves have told you exactly why they were here. you'll see this in the trial. that in the halls of the capital on social media, in news interviews and charging documents they confirmed, they were following the president's orders. you can see some of the statements on that screen. one who said "trump wants all abel-body patriots. another that president trump is calling us to fight."

another one, i thought i was following my president. i thought i was following what we were called to do. our president wants us here, we wait and take orders from the president. he made them believe over many weeks that the election was stolen and they were following his commands to take back their country. as i prepared for today, yesterday, this trial, one memory that i couldn't shake. which was on the night of january 6 then the feeling of walking back onto the house floor and seeing many of you there. i remember us finishing our task at 4:00 in the morning and as i walked off the floor, i was so grateful, so grateful for the opportunity to thank the

vice president of the united states, mike pence, for his actions. for standing before us and asking us to follow our oath and our faith. and our duty. we've only got a couple hours of sleep that morning, early the next day i called my dad, who came to this country, as i mentioned, as an immigrant 40 years ago, and i told him that the proudest moment by far of serving in congress for me was going back onto the floor with each of you. to finish the work that we had started. i am humbled to be back with you today. and just as on january 6th when we overcame that attack on our capital, on our country, i am hopeful that at this trial, we

can use our resolve and our resilience to again uphold our democracy. by faithfully applying the law, vindicating the constitution and holding president trump accountable for his actions. >> senators, representatives joaquin castro and eric swalwell will now show the evidence of president trump's long campaign to delegitimize his electoral defeat and galvanize his supporters to help him retain his power at any cost so we are going to go at this point step-by-step and a swing the progression all the way up until the attack.

>> good afternoon, y'all. i represent san antonio in the united states congress. there's a saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put on its shoes. that was before the internet. the point of that saying is the lie can do incredible damage and destruction and that's especially true when the lie is told by the most powerful person on earth, our commander in chief, the president of the

united states. this attack did not come from one speech and it didn't happen by accident. the evidence shows clearly that this mob was provoked over many months by donald j. trump. and if you look at the evidence, his purposeful conduct, you'll see that the attack was foreseeable and preventible. i'll start by discussing president trump's actions leading up to the election when he set up his big lie. beginning in the spring of 2020, president trump began to fall behind in the polls. and by july, president trump had reached a new low. he was running 15 points behind his opponent. he was scared. he had began to believe that he could legitimately lose the election. and so he did something entirely unprecedented in the history of

our nation. he refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power. here's what he said. i'm not going to just say yes. do you commit to feel -- >> get rid of the ballots and we'll have a very peaceful -- there won't be a transfer. there will be a continuation. >> senators, the president of the united states said, quote, there won't be a transition of power. there will be a continuation. president trump was given every opportunity to tell his supporters, yes, if i lose, i will peacefully transfer power to the next president. instead, he told his supporters,

the only way he could lose the election is if it was stolen. in tweet after tweet, he made sweeping allegations about election fraud that couldn't possibly be true. but that was the point. he didn't care if the claims were true. he wanted to make sure that his supporters were angry, like the election was being ripped away from them. on may 24th, six months before the election, he tweeted, it will be the greatest rigged election in history. how could he possibly know it would be the greatest rigged election in history six months before the election happened. on june 22nd more of the same. rigged 2020 election. it will be the scandal of our time. again, about an election that had not even happened.