Democrats Seek to Show Trump Was Indifferent to Capitol Assault

(Bloomberg) -- House prosecutors are completing their case in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial by focusing on what they say is the former president’s lack of remorse over the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol and his lack of concern for Vice President Mike Pence and others put at risk.

Democrats began their presentation during the third day of the trial focusing on the words of the insurrectionists, which House managers said show they were following the marching orders of Trump.

“Their own statements before, during and after the attack make clear the attack was done for Donald Trump, at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes,” said Representative Diana DeGette, one of the nine House managers. “They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders.”

The House managers intend to follow Wednesday’s stunning video footage of the Capitol’s ransacking by applying that and other evidence to the legal issues that apply in a constitutional impeachment, according to aides who briefed reporters. Trump’s defense will offer their arguments on Friday and may only need one day, which could lead to the trial finishing on Saturday.

In remarks to Politico on Wednesday night, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville recounted that a previously reported call he received that day from Trump occurred as rioters were moving toward the Senate, and he told Trump that Pence had just been evacuated. Trump was tweeting criticism of Pence for refusing to illegally reject Electoral College votes being counted before the riot.

President Joe Biden, who has avoided comment on the impeachment proceedings, said in brief comments to reporters Thursday that “some minds may have been changed” by the vivid case presented by House impeachment managers.

“I, like other Americans, watched the news. I didn’t watch any of the hearing live,” Biden said. “The Senate has a very important job to complete and I think -- my guess is -- some minds may have been changed but I don’t know.”

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, suggested the prosecution was futile, with most of his Republican colleagues already decided against conviction. He said he had assured the former president “the case is over” and “it’s just a matter of getting the final verdict.”

House managers used the second day of Trump’s impeachment trial Wednesday to detail a months-long campaign by the former president to stoke hatred and encourage violence over the election results that they said culminated in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol that he then did little to stop.

Using previously unreleased videos and audio, the Democratic lawmakers vividly showed senators how close the rioters came to reaching them, as well as Pence. Senators in the chamber listened in rapt silence as the recordings played.

The impeachment managers depicted the assault as not only foreseeable but the intended result of a multitude of actions calculated to incite Trump’s followers. The strategy appeared designed to rebut defense efforts to cast his fiery speech before the assault as normal political hyperbole and to persuade the public that his actions were premeditated and cynical.

The step-by-step timeline House impeachment managers offered set the Jan. 6 violence in the context of months of Trump tweets inflaming tensions even before the election. It was, they said, a “big lie” of baseless claims of election fraud, armed intimidation of state and local election officials, and violence at demonstrations in Washington in December. They stressed Trump’s role in promoting the rally on the day of the electoral count, the timing of his speech just ahead of the congressional session and his remarks pointing the crowd toward the Capitol.

“This was never about one speech,” Representative Eric Swalwell of California, one of the nine House impeachment managers, said. “He built this mob over many months with repeated messaging until they believed that they’d been robbed of their vote and they would do anything to stop the certification.”

Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, another impeachment manager, said the people who laid siege to the Capitol “did it because Donald Trump sent them on this mission” to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

Democrats portrayed Trump as indifferent to the harrowing ordeal his own vice president, lawmakers and police were undergoing, even as the violence and mayhem was broadcast live on television, and did nothing to protect lawmakers and others at the Capitol for hours, failing to call in the National Guard. They highlighted news reports quoting associates saying that the former president was initially “delighted” by the attack.

“Senators, you’ve seen all the evidence so far, and this is clear: on Jan. 6, President Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead,” Texas Representative Joaquin Castro said.

The dramatic presentation may have more impact on public opinion than the eventual verdict in the trial. The odds still are against 17 Republicans joining with Democrats and independents to form the two-thirds majority of the Senate necessary to convict Trump. Only six Republicans voted with Democrats on Tuesday to proceed with the trial.

Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who was among the GOP lawmakers who voted to block certification of electoral votes from two states on the day of the attack, called the footage shown in the trial “horrific.” But he said the House impeachment managers didn’t connect the violence to Trump.

“They spent a great deal of time focusing on the horrific acts of violence that were played out by the criminals, but the language from the president doesn’t come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement,” Cruz told reporters.

Still, several Republicans acknowledged the power of the House Democrats’ arguments.

“They had a strong presentation put together in a way that I think makes it very compelling,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 GOP leader, said. He didn’t rule out voting for conviction, saying he would listen to both sides “and draw conclusions when it’s all done.”

Trump lawyer Bruce Castor told reporters as he left the Capitol Wednesday night that ”we didn’t learn anything today that we didn’t already know.”

“Yesterday, we said we didn’t dispute that the breach of the Capitol is a terrible thing, and that mob violence is something that President Trump abhors,” he said, adding, “I wonder why we sat through eight hours of videos that aren’t under dispute.”

Trump’s team intends to rely heavily on his use of the words “peacefully and patriotically” at one point in the Jan. 6 speech as part of his defense against the impeachment charge of incitement, according to people familiar with the effort. They also plan to show videos of prominent Democrats using similar rhetoric about fighting to argue Trump is being subjected to a double standard.

Representative Madeleine Dean, another impeachment manager, anticipating the argument, said that Trump only used the word “peacefully” once in the 11,000-word speech, while urging on followers with the words “fight” or “fighting” 20 times.

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