Democrats say Donald Trump was ‘reveling’ in the bloodshed of the MAGA riot

Lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin called Donald Trump ‘a man who praised and encouraged and cultivated violence’ when it came to the January 6th MAGA riot on Capitol Hill.

Raskin made his charge Wednesday as the prosecution began its case against the former president. Trump is charged on one count of impeachment – inciting the insurrection at the Capitol that left five dead.

In his opening remarks, Raskin blasted Trump for inciting the insurrection and claimed the former president saw the violence coming.

‘He watched it on TV like a reality show, he reveled in it,’ he charged. ‘There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the U.S. of his office and his oath to the Constitution.’

Raskin, in his nearly 20 minute speech, painted Trump as betraying his duties as president in order to preserve his political power. 

‘He incited this attack and he saw it coming,’ Raskin argued. ‘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.’

Raskin said the House managers, over the next 16 hours, will show Trump violated his oath of office and abdicated his duty as commander in chief. 

‘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 role as commander in chief and became the inciter in chief,’ he said. 

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse picked up Raskin’s argument and doubled down on forgoing his oath of office.

‘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,’ Neguse said.

He focused his argument on demonstrating that Trump was ramping up his supporters long before his January 6th speech, intending to counter Trump’s defense that his speech was free speech and wasn’t a call to arms.

‘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,’ he said. 

He showed clips of Trump speeches and rallies where the president complained – falsely – that the election was stolen. 

‘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,’ Neguse said. 

As part of their case, House impeachment managers will show never-before-seen Capitol security footage of the January 6th riot as they start their case for impeaching Donald Trump.

The footage will demonstrate the extent of the violence that occurred and the threat the rioters posed to everyone in the Capitol, senior aides on the House impeachment team told CNN. 

They did not say what the new footage was, or whether it came from Capitol Police or Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police. 

The video will show ‘extreme violence’ and make clear what additional safety risks were posed by the insurrection, a House aide told The Washington Post, including ‘just how close Trump’s mob came to senators, members of Congress and staff.’

‘It will show the extent of what Donald Trump unleashed on our Capitol,’ said the aide.

The Democratic impeachment managers will begin their prosecution on Wednesday.  

They will argue the riot, which left five dead and a wake of destruction in the Capitol, was not just the result of Trump’s January 6th speech, where he urged supporters to ‘fight like hell’ and march on the Capitol. They will claim the insurrection was the culmination of Trump’s conduct over several months, where repeatedly and falsely claimed the election was stolen. 

The House members are not expected to use the full 16 hours they are allotted for their presentation. After they finish, the defense will make its case and also is not expected to use its full 16 hours.

Trump’s second impeachment trial could end as soon as this weekend. He is expected to be acquitted. 

The Democratic impeachment managers previewed their case against the former president with a 14-minute video on Tuesday that contained dramatic footage of Trump supporters storming the Capitol and taunting police officers with obscenities as they bashed in doors and windows.

Trump’s defense tried to counter the lingering image of the video, which visibly affected many senators in the chamber. Those lawmakers were also in the Capitol on January 6th.

But Trump was set off by the defense mustered by his legal team, raging at key admissions and a presentation that appeared to drive away a key Republican vote.

Trump, viewing the proceedings from his new home at Mar-a-Lago, was aghast that one of his lawyers, Bruce Castor, acknowledged the potency of the opening argument put forward by House Democratic impeachment managers, ABC News reported. 

Castor even acknowledged that his team changed course after viewing the Democrats’ dramatic video.

‘I’ll be quite frank with you, we changed what we were going to do on account that we thought that the House managers’ presentation was well done,’ Castor admitted. ‘And I wanted you to know that we have responses to those things.’ 

One Trump advisor even told CNN getting good legal representation was a concern if he is ever charged in criminal court, which is now possible since he is out of office.

‘Trump is f***** if anyone ever charges him. No one wants to work with him,’ said the advisor. 

The concern boiling up from Florida was also playing out in the Senate hallways, where Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana called the legal presentation ‘disorganized’ and ‘random’ and said it swayed him to vote with Democrats on the issue of constitutionality.

Castor rejected criticism bubbling up when asked about it in the Senate. ‘I thought we had a good day,’ he said.   

Castor made other admissions that may have grated on Trump, calling him a ‘former president’ while also saying: ‘President Trump no longer is in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He was removed by the voters.’ He was arguing against the need for a post-presidency impeachment.  

But, after the first day, there was little sign that Democrats can gain the total of 17 Republican senators they would need to vote with them to convict Trump at the end of the trial, which could come as quickly as Saturday.

During three-and-half hours of debate on the Senate floor Tuesday, the defense and prosecution had the chance to argue whether holding an impeachment trial of a former official is in line with the Constitution.

Several Republicans, however, ridiculed Trump’s defense team for missing the point of their outlined argument against the constitutionality of the timing of the proceedings. 

‘I thought the President’s lawyer – the first lawyer just rambled on and on and on and didn’t really address the constitutional argument,’ Texas Senator John Cornyn told reporters outside the chamber following his vote against moving forward. 

‘Finally, the second lawyer got around to it and, I thought, did an effective job,’ he continued, referencing David Schoen. ‘But I’ve seen a lot of lawyers and a lot of arguments and that was not one of the finest I’ve seen.’  

Castor, however, defended himself against critics – including Republican lawmaker – claiming he doesn’t plan to switch up any legal strategy going forward in the trial.

‘I thought we had a good day,’ Castor repeatedly told press on Capitol Hill Tuesday evening when asked about criticism he didn’t make a good case against constitutionality for the trial.

‘Do you anticipate any sort of adjustments after today?’ a reporter asked of the former president’s attorney.

‘No, I set up the outline a week ago and it will not change,’ he shot back. 

Democrats began their impeachment case against Trump Tuesday afternoon with a video of profanity and violence during the January 6 MAGA attack on the Capitol.

The former president’s defense team claimed the video showing was part of the left turning the proceedings into a ‘bloodsport’ for some of Trump’s biggest critics. 

‘We now learn that the House managers in their wisdom have hired a movie company and a large law firm to create, manufacture and splice for you a package designed by experts to chill and horrify you and our fellow Americans,’ Trump’s defense lawyer David Schoen decried from the Senate floor.

He added: ‘They don’t need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here. We will stipulate that it happened, and you know all about it. This is a process fueled irresponsibly by base hatred by these House managers.’  

The more than 14-minute video presented at the top of the Democrats’ case for conviction included snappy cuts between the violence of the pro-Trump mob and the former president’s speech just beforehand. 

Trump’s defense attorney Bruce Castor, however, made less of a legal case and went more for flattery, praising the senators for their work, their patriotism and dedication to country.

That flattery apparently held no bearing as senators Castor specifically mentioned, like his home state’s Toomey, voted against the defense. 

When walking out of the chamber on Tuesday night, Murkowski made clear to reporters that she felt Trump’s lawyers missed their opportunity to present a coherent case against the constitutionality of impeaching now-private citizen Trump.

‘Today was supposed to be an opportunity to be briefed on the constitutionality of whether or not you can move forward with an impeachment of a former president,’ the Alaska moderate said. ‘I thought that the House presented a pretty good legal analysis.’ 

She also claimed Castor was a disaster for the former president, but said Schoen was able to redeem some of the legal argument. 

‘In fairness, I was really stunned at the first attorney who presented for former President Trump,’ she said of Castor. ‘I couldn’t figure out where he was going, spent 45 minutes going somewhere, but I don’t think he helped with us better understanding where he was coming from on the constitutionality of this.’

The Democrats went for the gut punch, using their opening argument to remind senators of what happened the day of the riot, the confusion, fear and brute force that was in play as lawmakers fled from the mass of Trump supporters.

The video showed highlights from the insurrection, including Trump urging his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ at a rally outside the White House that morning. It also showed the violence and destruction the rioters inflicted as they fought their way through police lines and breached the building. 

The defense team also presented their own video more than an hour-and-a-half into their two-hours of argument.

Their video included dramatic, dark music with clips of Democrats preemptively saying they would call to impeach Trump starting just days into his presidency. This included a 2019 clip of Representative Rashida Tlaib, just after becoming a congresswoman, saying, ‘We’re going to impeach the motherf***er.’ 

Lead Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin began the Democrats’ case with an impassioned speech on the constitutionality of the impeachment trial and ending with an emotional personal story of the riot and how it affected him. At times he held back tears as he recounted what happened on January 6.

And it wasn’t just about him, he told a captive Senate audience, which sat in silence listening to him. 

”This trial is personal for every senator and for every member of the House, for every manager and all our staff and the capital police and the Washington DC metropolitan police and the National Guard and maintenance and custodial crews and the print journalists and TV people who were here,’ Raskin said.

In contrast, Trump attorney Bruce Castor started off his defense of the former president with a rambling soliloquy that veered between name-dropping the senators he knows and praising the Senate for its work.

‘And you know, senators of the United States, they are not ordinary people. There are extraordinary people in the technical sense, extraordinary people,’ Castor said.

‘I have been around the United States senators before. Two of them in this room from Pennsylvania and I would like to think are friendly towards me or at least friends of mine when we are not politically adverse,’ he noted.

He talked about how he worked in the Senate forty years ago and ‘I got lost then and I still do.’

He eventually got around to mentioning Donald Trump. He launched a general defense about the freedom of speech, noting people have the right to disagree with anyone, even Trump.

‘I do not expect and I don’t believe former president expect anybody to walk back any of the language. If that is how they feel about the way things transparent over the last couple of years in his country, they should be allowed to say that. And I will go to court and defend them if anything happens to them as a result,’ Castor said.

One of the arguments Trump’s legal team made is that his speech the morning of January 6th was not inciting a mob but protected free speech under the first amendment.

‘We cannot possibly be suggesting that we punish people for political speech in this country,’ he said. 

The main argument from Castor, and fellow defense attorney David Schoen, is meant to focus on the unconstitutionality of moving forward with impeachment of an ex-president. Most of their floor speech on Tuesday, however, did not present much legal argument for that stance. 

Toward the end of Castor’s more than 45-minute remarks, he said: ‘President Trump is no longer is in office. The object of the Constitution has been achieved. He was removed by the voters.’ 

The impeachment managers, however, presented a strong, coherent and cohesive argument to one from Trump’s lawyers that a former president cannot be impeachment. The Democratic prosecutors pointed out that Trump was president when the impeachable offense was conducted, making him liable under the law.

But they let the video speak for them and used the words of the rioters as part of their case: 

‘Find Mike,’ one of the rioters is heard yelling about then Vice President Pence.

‘F*** you police,’ one yelled as he confronted Capitol Police officers outside the Capitol.

‘Where the f*** are they,’ another person yells as the rioters made their way through the building.

‘There’s got to be something useful in here,’ one says as he flips through files, tossing documents on the floor.

Senators were also shown footage from the Senate that morning, where they all sat where they did on Tuesday as they heard evidence. They saw Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell speak against Trump’s attempts to overturn the election and the chamber being gavelled out of session as rioters made their way toward them. There was also a clip of officer Eugene Goodman leading the rioters away from the Senate as the senators were evacuated.

Impeachment managers included a clip of Trump’s video tweet, where he told the rioters he loved them. 

And the senators saw rioters use chairs to try and break the glass outside the House chamber, trying to get in as Capitol Police officers held them off. They heard the shot as rioter Ashli Babbitt was killed.

The sounds from the video seemed to echo through the Senate chamber, filling it with the screams and yells of the mob.

Senators were in the Capitol on January 6th, but the video brought it all back, showing a condensed version of attack and previously unseen footage of the rioters. 

When the video concluded, it was silent. Senators sat quietly until Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin began his argument again. Senators then shuffled in their seats, opening binders and rustling papers. 

‘You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution? That’s a high crime and misdemeanor,’ Raskin said, pointing to one of the monitors in the chamber after the video aired. ‘If that’s not an impeachable offense then there is no such thing.’ 

Raskin warned the Senate that Trump was trying to make them ‘powerless’ with his argument the senators couldn’t impeach him.

‘It is undisputed that we impeached him while he was president. There can be no doubt that this is a valid and legitimate impeachment. And there can be no doubt that the Senate has the power to try this impeachment,’ he said.

‘Article 1, section 3 gives the Senate the sole power to try all impeachments. The Senate has the power, the sole power to try all impeachments. All means all under no exceptions to the rule. But because the Senate has jurisdiction to try all impeachments and has jurisdiction to try this on. It’s really that simple,’ he noted.