House impeachment managers will close their arguments in the trial on Thursday by focusing in on former President Trump’s role in inciting the Capitol insurrection, according to two senior aides on the impeachment managers’ team.
“Today, we’re moving to the part of the trial where we establish additional evidence of Trump’s role,” one of the aides said.
House impeachment managers will describe the “harm” inflicted on the country by the insurrection attempt, the aide said, going “beyond the obvious physical harms.” The managers will also discuss Trump’s “lack of remorse” and the legal issues at play in tying the former President to the insurrection.
House impeachment managers released stunning video on Wednesday showing how close the pro-Trump mob came to ensnaring senators and members of Congress, who were evacuated from their chambers after the crowd had begun to swarm the halls of the Capitol.
The video was taken from surveillance cameras located around the Capitol, marking the first time that the footage was shown publicly.
One clip showed former Vice President Mike Pence escape his office while surrounded by his family and a cohort of Secret Service agents. That escape took place only two minutes after Trump tweeted that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
Senior aides on the impeachment team said on Thursday that the Pence issue, among others pertaining to Trump’s involvement in the insurrection, would set the stage for the day’s presentation.
“Yesterday, a large point of the presentation was asking the question, where was President Trump during the hours that the Capitol was under siege, and what was he doing?” one aide said. “We will have more to speak on that point today.”
Some Republican Senators expressed sorrow in response to the horrifying images shown on Wednesday but fell short of suggesting that it would be enough to sway them into voting to convict the former President and bar him from holding future office.
Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) said that “most Republicans found the presentation by the House managers offensive and absurd.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) expressed umbrage at day’s end on Wednesday after manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) recounted how President Trump accidentally called Lee as the insurrection was taking place in an effort to further delay congressional certification of the vote. Trump, reportedly, had meant to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
This will put Donnie in a “Really Good Mood.”
OT, but Raffesnberger taking “corrective measures” to save his career and try to destroy voting rights…
OT, filed under “if you thought they were done trying after 1/6/21”…
Nail, meet coffin.