February 13, 2021, 9:21 am
Lots of people waltzed into the Capitol on January 6th believing that they’d been sent there by the former president himself. Donald Trump had told them to fight the election results. While he may not have explicitly said “and break in the Capitol windows while you’re at it” they read between the lines.
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Now a lot of them seem shocked to find that Trump has bailed and isn’t shielding them from the consequences of committing federal crimes. As Trump sits in Mar-a-Lago, unable to tweet, watching his impeachment trial unfold, Huffpost reports that those people on trial for their participation in the attempted insurrection are saying he told them to do it.
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The rioters have claimed when he said, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” they believed him.
What does the Trump camp have to say about all that? Well, Trump’s lawyers have decided to say that “no thinking person” could actually believe Trump meant it when he encouraged them to mob Congress.
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“No thinking person could seriously believe that the president’s Jan. 6 speech on the Ellipse was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection,” his lawyer Michael van der Veen stated. “The suggestion is patently absurd on its face. Nothing in the text could ever be construed as encouraging, condoning, or enticing unlawful activity of any kind.”
On Wednesday, Democratic impeachment manager Rep. Joe Neguse told Senators that the rioters were “doing what he wanted them to do,” playing a video of the crowd on that day cheering “FIGHT FOR TRUMP.”
We all know Trump seemed to encourage those people to storm the Capitol, just like we knew he’d likely bail on them as soon as possible. They only knew the first part.
*First Published: February 13, 2021, 9:21 am
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