Prosecutors: Trump ‘reveled in’ mob rage
New administration recognizes challenges
Video shows rioters chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence’
Bart Jansen
WASHINGTON – House impeachment managers wielded former President Donald Trump’s words against him Wednesday, arguing that he spent weeks fueling the rage behind the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and then “reveled in” the mayhem and destruction.
The managers, who are acting as prosecutors in the Senate impeachment trial, pointed to Trump’s remarks and Twitter messages in which he falsely claimed that the Nov. 3 election was stolen and urged his supporters to come to Washington on the day Congress was scheduled to formalize the election results.
Trump was quoted tweeting that dead people had voted and that illegal votes
altered results, even though his own Justice Department found no evidence of widespread election fraud. Managers said Trump whipped supporters into a frenzy by telling them “you have to show strength” and exhorting them to “fight like hell.”
House managers argued that Trump was warned that violent protesters were headed to Washington through news reports, law enforcement reports and arrests.
“He watched it on TV like a reality show,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., citing news reports quoting senior aides to Trump. “He reveled in it.”
The managers played video – some of it previously unreleased security footage – of rioters brawling with police outside the Capitol, smashing windows to climb inside and rampaging through the halls with bats and poles looking for Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Rioters erected a gallows outside the Capitol and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence” and “Bring out Pence.” As they swarmed through the building, they shouted they were looking for Pelosi, calling the California Democrat “crazy Nancy.”
Trump is charged with inciting the insurrection that occurred as Congress was tallying Electoral College votes certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
Five people died, including a police officer hit with a fire extinguisher and a woman shot by an officer outside the House chamber. Other officers were beaten by the mob or had their eyes gouged. One officer lost three fingers.
Trump’s defense team, led by Bruce Castor and David Schoen, argued that Trump’s speech is protected by the First Amendment and that he can’t be held accountable for the mob.
Several Senate Republicans called the House arguments predictable and redundant.
“This is pretty obvious this is a political exercise,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, RWis.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who said he spoke with Trump on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, predicted the former president would be acquitted. A two-thirds majority of the Senate is required for conviction, which would mean at least 17 Republicans would need to join 50 Democrats in a finding that Trump was guilty of inciting an insurrection.
“The bottom line is: I reinforced to the president the case is over,” Graham said. “It’s just a matter of getting the final verdict now.”
House managers spent Wednesday arguing that Trump began inciting unrest weeks before the election with baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The managers said the complaints culminated in Trump’s speech near the White House on Jan. 6 before the mob attacked the Capitol.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., cited a Nov. 15 tweet from Trump that said, “I concede NOTHING !!!!! ” On Nov. 17, Trump tweeted: “DEAD PEOPLE VOTED,” without elaboration. On Nov. 28, Trump tweeted: “We have found many illegal votes. Stay tuned!”
Swalwell played a recording of Trump saying that “dead people were requesting ballots and they were dead for years.” Trump said Biden’s margins of victory in some states were the result of “extraordinarily large midnight vote dumps.”
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., could be heard laughing in the Senate chamber during the video about dead people voting.
Trump never documented the claims. State election officials certified Biden’s victory. And then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department found no widespread election fraud.
“Donald Trump for months and months assembled the tinder, the kindling, threw on fuel to have his supporters believe that the only way their victory would be lost was if it was stolen,” Swalwell said. “Instead of accepting the results, he told his base more lies. He doused the flames with kerosene.”
Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic delegate from the Virgin Islands, cited witness testimony from court cases against rioters who said “anyone they got their hands on they would have killed.”
“They were talking about assassinating the vice president of the United States,” Plaskett said. “They did it because Donald Trump sent them.”
Trump called his Jan. 6 speech “totally appropriate.” His defense team compared the riot to a bad accident or natural disaster for which society sought someone to blame. But Raskin said Trump was warned by media reports, law enforcement reports and arrests that the supporters he spurred to the Capitol could become violent.
“In short, we will prove that the impeached president was no innocent bystander, whose conduct was ‘totally appropriate,’” Raskin said. “He incited this attack and he saw it coming.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, argued that Trump’s crusade against voting by mail allowed Biden to dominate mail voting by a 2-to-1 margin nationwide.
That resulted in Trump having a lead on Election Day in some states that evaporated once mailed ballots were counted.
Trump’s supporters gathered outside election centers in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and other states as votes were being counted inside.
“They bought into his big lie,” Castro said.
House managers argued that Trump knew the effect his words would have. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., quoted Trump’s former chief of staff, retired four-star Marine Gen. John Kelly, as evidence that Trump knew he could inflame a crowd.
“He knows who he is talking to and knows what he wants them to do,” Kelly said the day after the riot. “No surprise what happened yesterday.”
On Thursday, the managers plan to review the death and carnage from the insurrection in more detail.
That session will complete up to 16 hours of opening arguments in the historic second trial for Trump.
The former president’s defense team will then have up to 16 hours for their arguments starting Friday.
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced plans for a Pentagon review of national security strategy on China as part of his push to recalibrate the U.S. approach with Beijing.
Biden’s call for a new task force to review strategy comes as the new administration shows growing recognition that the U.S. faces increasing challenges posed by China’s modernized and more assertive military.
The president announced the review during his first visit to the Pentagon as commander in chief. Defense Department officials described the review as a “sprint” effort that would weigh U.S. intelligence, troop levels in the region, defense alliances with China and more.
Biden said the task force would make recommendations to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “so that we can chart a strong path forward on China-related matters.” He announced the task force in an address to the Pentagon workforce after he and Vice President Kamala Harris met with Defense Department brass Wednesday afternoon.
Biden is determined to depart from President Donald Trump’s approach to China, a relationship that placed economic and trade concerns above all else and then hit a wall after the coronavirus pandemic.
The task force is to present its findings to Austin within four months. No final public report is anticipated, but Pentagon officials will discuss recommendations with Congress and others.
At his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Austin said he agreed with a recent Pentagon report that said China’s ambition is to develop a military that is equal to, and in some respects superior to, that of the U.S. by 2050.
“While that may be their goal, I would … intend to make sure that never happens,” Austin said.
Last week, Austin also announced a “global posture review” that he said will make sure that the military’s presence around the world “aligns with our national interests” and ensure “we have the right capabilities in the right places.”
The Pentagon also does an annual report on the state of China’s military.
Austin selected Ely Ratner, a top Pentagon adviser, to lead the review. Ratner served as deputy national security adviser to Biden as vice president and also served as a China specialist during the Obama administration.
Biden is taking early stock of the military as it pivots from the turmoil of the Trump years and focuses to an unusual degree on domestic and internal issues.
As defense leaders await direction from Biden on possible new approaches to overseas security threats, Austin is treating the coronavirus pandemic as a top priority and ordering fresh assessments of how to root out sexual assault and extremism in the military’s ranks.
On his first day in office, Austin issued a message to the force that emphasized his commitment to finding ways the military can help the government move “further and faster” to fight the pandemic. Already there are more than 24,000 National Guard members providing logistical support for the vaccine program and giving as many as 50,000 shots per day.
Last week, the Pentagon announced it will deploy more than 1,100 troops to five vaccination centers at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This marks the first wave of increased military support for the national vaccination campaign.
The military is preparing to deploy the first team of about 222 service members to a vaccination center in California, and it says it is ready to deploy four similar teams to other centers when FEMA is ready. FEMA has asked the Pentagon to supply as many as 10,000 troops to staff 100 centers, but Austin is approving the teams incrementally as the locations are identified.
Biden, in a brief exchange with reporters after his remarks, declined to say whether he would seek to take action against China for its handling of the pandemic. The virus first emerged in the country’s Wuhan province.
The World Health Organization in a report released this week said it was “extremely unlikely” that the coronavirus leaked from a lab in Wuhan. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday that the Biden administration would hold off on commenting on the WHO report until it has time to review the findings.
“I’m interested in getting all the
AR-GCI0567618-01 facts,” Biden said.
The president, while at the Pentagon, also took a tour of the African Americans in Service Corridor, an exhibit honoring Black service members.
The new defense secretary, Austin, is the first African American Pentagon chief.
Other news
The Biden administration told the Supreme Court that it believes the entire Affordable Care Act should be upheld, reversing a Trump administration position in a key case pending before the justices.
The Justice Department filed a letter Wednesday “to notify the Court that the United States no longer adheres to the conclusions in the previously filed brief.” The health care case was argued a week after the election in November.
It’s at least the third case in which the new administration has switched positions at the Supreme Court. The other two are cases over Trump’s push to build portions of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and a Trump policy forcing people seeking asylum to wait in Mexico for their hearings.
The Trump administration called on the justices to strike down the entire Obama-era health law under which some 23 million people get health insurance and millions more with preexisting health conditions are protected from discrimination.
The fight is over whether a 2017 change in a provision of the law known as the individual mandate rendered it unconstitutional. Congress eliminated the penalty for not having health insurance.
The Trump administration backed the view of Texas and other Republicanled states that if such an important part of the law is invalid, the entire law should fall with it.
In Wednesday’s letter, the Justice Department says the now-toothless mandate remains constitutional, but that even if the court decides otherwise, the rest of the law should be left alone.