Make America Sane Again Prosecute Antifa
Prosecution rests, proverb if Trump is not bedevilled, it sets 'a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct.'
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Highlights From Day 3 of Trump'due south Impeachment Trial
Prosecutors wrapped up their arguments by asserting that President Donald J. Trump incited rioters to storm the Capitol, office of a pattern of provoking violence that would not end unless the Senate voted to convict him.
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"I want to step back from the horrors of the set on itself, and wait at Jan. 6 from a totally different perspective, the perspective of the insurrectionists themselves — their own statements earlier, during and after the attack make clear the attack was done for Donald Trump at his instructions, and to fulfill his wishes. During the rally, President Trump led the crowd in a 'Stop the steal' chant. Hither's what that chant sounded like from the crowd'southward perspective." Trump: "We will finish the steal." Oversupply: "Stop the steal. Cease the steal. Terminate the steal!" "The president basked as the crowd chanted, 'Fight for Trump,' and when he incited the crowd to show forcefulness, people responded, 'Storm the Capitol,' 'Invade the Capitol.' As the crowd chanted at the rally, the crowd at the Capitol made articulate who they were doing this for." "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!" "All of these people who have been arrested and charged, they're being accountable, held accountable for their actions. Their leader, the man who incited them, must be held accountable every bit well." "Jan. 6 was a culmination of the president's actions, non an aberration from them. The coup was the most violent and dangerous episode, so far, in Donald Trump'due south continuing pattern and practice of inciting violence." "Then if y'all encounter somebody getting set to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of him, would you seriously — OK, just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise." "The president praised a Republican candidate who assaulted a journalist, every bit 'my kind of guy.' He said in that location were, quote, 'very fine people on both sides' when the neo-Nazis, the Klansmen and Proud Boys invaded the metropolis, the great city of Charlottesville, and killed Heather Heyer. And he said that an attack on a Black protester at one of his rallies was 'very, very appropriate.' Does that sound familiar? Heed to how President Trump responded when asked about his ain comport on January the 6th." "And then if you read my speech, and many people have done it, it'southward been analyzed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate." "My dear colleagues, is there whatever political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to go his manner? Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your republic on that?" "President Trump's lack of remorse and refusal to accept accountability subsequently the assail poses its own unique and standing danger. It sends the message that information technology is acceptable to incite a violent insurrection, to overthrow the will of the people, and that a president of the United States can exercise that. And get away with it. His impeachment, conviction and disqualification is not simply about the past. Information technology's nigh the futurity. It's making sure that no future official, no future president does the same verbal thing President Trump does." "If you don't discover this a high crime and misdemeanor today, y'all have gear up a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct in the Usa of America. The only existent question here is the factual one. Did nosotros prove that Donald Trump, while president of the United States, incited a violent insurrection against the regime? We believe that nosotros take shown you overwhelming show in this example, that would convince anyone using their common sense that this was indeed incitement." "We humbly, humbly enquire you to convict President Trump for the crime for which he is overwhelmingly guilty of. Because if you don't, if nosotros pretend this didn't happen, or worse, if we let information technology go unanswered, who'south to say it won't happen again?"
The House Democrats prosecuting quondam President Donald J. Trump rested their case on Thursday, branding him a articulate and present danger to United States commonwealth who could sow new violence like the mortiferous assault on the Capitol last month if he was not barred from holding office again.
Calling on senators to return "impartial justice" and embrace the "mutual sense" of the country's founders, the nine impeachment managers closed their case by laying out the grave damage the Jan. 6 riot had caused not just to lawmakers or police officers at the Capitol, just to the democratic organization and America'southward standing around the globe. None of it, they argued, would accept happened without Mr. Trump.
"Senators, America, we need to exercise our common sense about what happened," said Representative Jamie Raskin of Mayland, the lead director, reading from Thomas Paine. "Permit'due south non become caught up in a lot of outlandish lawyers theories here. Practise your common sense about what but took place in our country."
Mr. Raskin said the evidence that Mr. Trump cultivated, incited and then showed no remorse for the attack warranted making him the first impeached president ever to be convicted and the first quondam president to be disqualified from holding future function.
"If yous don't find this a high crime and misdemeanor today, y'all have set a new terrible standard for presidential misconduct in the The states of America," he said.
Paradigm
A 24-hour interval after delivering the Senate a harrowing account of the deadly violence, replete with chilling, previously unseen security footage, the prosecutors returned for the trial's third day with new video clips, court documents and interviews in which the rioters dedicated their actions by citing Mr. Trump'south directives and desires.
"We were invited here," 1 of them screamed, the clip echoing through the Senate chamber.
"Their own statements earlier, during and after the attack made clear the attack was done for Donald Trump — at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes," said Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado.
They also argued that Mr. Trump had encouraged and celebrated violence before January. 6 — such every bit a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2022 and scuffles during his campaign rallies — and shown no remorse for whipping upward thousands of his loyal supporters past telling them to "fight like hell" that twenty-four hour period. Afterward, they noted, Mr. Trump chosen his speech "totally appropriate."
"I'm not afraid of Donald Trump running again in 4 years," said Representative Ted Lieu of California. "I'm afraid he's going to run once more and lose, because he tin can do this once again."
Their chore to convict remains a daunting ane as they aim to persuade Republican senators who have shown no appetite for breaking with Mr. Trump to do so.
By turn, the managers sought to appeal to Republicans' sense of patriotism and decency. They read the words of Republicans who voted in the Firm to impeach Mr. Trump and from the former president's ain cabinet secretaries,who resigned in protest subsequently the deadly riot. They played audio of traumatized aides who had contemplated leaving government after the attack. And they recounted the humiliating taunts of foreign adversaries who looked on in glee.
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Trump Has a 'Pattern and Practice of Inciting Violence,' Raskin Says
Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment managing director, outlined a history of onetime President Donald J. Trump'southward incitement and support of violence amidst his supporters leading up to the Jan. vi Capitol anarchism.
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January. 6 was a culmination of the president'south deportment, not an aberration from them. The insurrection was the near vehement and dangerous episode, so far, in Donald Trump'south continuing pattern and practice of inciting violence. The president praised a Republican candidate who assaulted a journalist, as 'my kind of guy.' He said there were, quote, 'very fine people on both sides' when the neo-Nazis, the Klansmen and Proud Boys invaded the city, the great urban center, of Charlottesville, and killed Heather Heyer. And he said that an assault on a Black protester at 1 of his rallies was 'very, very appropriate.' When responding to extremist plots in Michigan, Trump showed he knew how to use the power of a mob to advance his political objectives. Beginning in March, Trump leveled attacks on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the coronavirus policies in her state. On October. 8, the precise consequences of the president's incitement to violence were revealed to the whole globe. Wait at this, 13 men were arrested by the F.B.I. for plotting to storm the Michigan Country Capitol building, launch a civil war, kidnap Governor Whitmer, transport her to Wisconsin and so effort and execute her. And what did Donald Trump practise do as president of the United States to defend one of our nation's governors confronting a plotted kidnapping by violent insurrectionists? Did he publicly condemn tearing domestic extremists who hoped and planned to launch a ceremonious state of war in America? No, not at all. He further inflamed them by continuing to attack the governor who was the object of their hatred. My dear colleagues, is there whatever politico in this room who believes that if he is always immune by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to go his way? Would you bet the lives of more police force officers on that? Would you bet the condom of your family unit on that? Would y'all bet the future of your democracy on that? President Trump alleged his conduct totally appropriate. So he gets dorsum into office, and it happens again, we'll have no one to blame only ourselves.
Only already on Wed, Republican senators who sat through a brilliant retelling of an assault they had lived through appeared unmoved from their decision to bear Mr. Trump.
Seventeen Republicans would have to join every Democrat to achieve the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.
Mr. Trump's lawyers are expected to present his defence force outset at apex on Friday. They intend to deny that he was responsible for the attack or meant to interfere with the balloter procedure underway at the Capitol, despite his repeated exhortations to supporters to "fight like hell" to "cease the steal."
One of the lawyers, David I. Schoen, derided the Democrats' presentation as a thinly sourced "amusement parcel" and "offensive" during an appearance on Fob News during the trial on Thursday.
"In no setting in this country where someone's guilt or innocence is being adjudicated would this kind of approach be permitted," he said.
The trial is moving quickly, and senators could reach a verdict by the terminate of the vacation weekend. But commencement, they volition have a run a risk to question the prosecution and the defence, and the managers may force a argue and vote on calling witnesses.
Aishvarya Kavi contributed reporting.
'We're fighting for Trump!': Impeachment managers leverage rioters' own words, and videos, to make their case.
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Impeachment Managers Pursue Instance Against Trump With Rioters' Words
On Th, Representative Diana DeGette, used crowd chants and online spoken language from rioters to demonstrate how they followed orders from former President Trump and acted on his behalf.
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"The crowd at Donald Trump's speech echoed and chanted his words. And when people in the oversupply followed his direction and marched to the Capitol, they chanted the same words as they breached this building. Now, permit'due south render to the speech for a moment. During the rally, President Trump led the crowd in a 'Stop the Steal' chant. Here'due south what that dirge sounded like from the crowd's perspective." "Hither'south a term all of you people really came upwardly with we will 'terminate the steal.'" [cheering] "Stop the steal! Stop the steal!" "And when he incited the oversupply to show force, people responded, 'Storm the Capitol,' 'Invade the Capitol.' Hither are both of those moments, but from the crowd's perspective. "Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!" "As President Trump said, 'show strength,' a person posted to Parler saying, quote, 'Time to fight Civil War is upon united states.' Some other user said, quote, 'Nosotros are going to have a Civil State of war. Get prepare.' An analysis found that members of Civil War quadrupled on Parler in the hour after Donald Trump said, 'testify strength.' Insurrectionists belongings Confederate flags and brandishing weapons cheered the president'south very words." "Stop the steal! End the steal! Stop the steal! Terminate the steal!" "When the insurrectionists showtime got into the building and confronted constabulary, the mob screamed at the officers that they were listening to President Trump."
The House Democrats leading the impeachment prosecution used the words of rioters supporting Donald J. Trump against the one-time president on Thursday, as they sought to bear witness that the sacking of the Capitol was washed by people who believed they were following Mr. Trump's wishes.
"They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president'southward orders — and we know that because they said so," said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, and i of the House managers.
In one prune, she showed rioters chanting "Stop the steal! Terminate the steal!" as they tried to enter the Capitol — not long later on Mr. Trump had led that chant at a rally. In another, she showed a rioter, identified equally Baked Alaska, the nickname of the far-right personality Anthime J. Gionet, talking almost calling upwardly Mr. Trump while in the Capitol: "He'll be happy. What do you hateful? We're fighting for Trump!" In a third, a rioter was heard shouting at police in the Capitol, "We are listening to Trump — your boss."
Ms. DeGette's presentation spliced together footage of the rioters themselves too as subsequent claims from their lawyers about why they were at the Capitol. She quoted an attorney for Jacob Anthony Chansley, who stormed the Capitol wearing a fur headdress with horns and his face painted cherry-red, white and blueish, proverb that Mr. Chansley was there "at the invitation of our president." Mr. Chansley, who is known equally Q Shaman for his propagation of baseless QAnon conspiracy theories, too left a note in the Capitol for quondam Vice President Mike Pence that read, "Only a matter of fourth dimension. Justice is Coming!"
The Democrats' case — and their repeated use of gripping and wrenching videos from the day of the riot, including some shot by the rioters themselves — is aimed not just at the Republican jurors in the Senate, who seem increasingly unlikely to convict Mr. Trump, just a nationwide television audience.
"This was not a hidden crime," Ms. DeGette said. "The president told them to be there."
In one last video, Ms. DeGette showed a rioter shouting conspicuously about who had brought them to the Capitol building. "We were invited here!" he shouted. "We were invited by the president of the United states!"
Business firm impeachment managers rebut Trump'south expected First Amendment defense force.
Epitome
The Firm prosecution team on Thursday sought to preemptively rebut a legal argument that former President Donald J. Trump's lawyers are expected to make in his defence force: that his remarks to a oversupply of supporters on Jan. vi were protected under the First Amendment.
Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and the lead impeachment managing director, said the idea of a First Amendment defense to being impeached for loftier crimes and misdemeanors was "absurd" and a "smoke screen."
"The First Amendment does not create some superpower immunity from impeachment for a president who attacks the Constitution in word and deed while rejecting the event of an election he happened to lose," Mr. Raskin said.
In a cursory on Monday, Mr. Trump'south lawyers relied in part on the Outset Amendment to defend the former president. They asserted that his remarks on Jan. 6 "fell well within the norms of political speech that is protected by the Start Subpoena, and to try him for that would exist to do a grave injustice to the liberty of speech in this state."
Mr. Raskin tried to flip the argument on its caput equally he addressed senators on Thursday.
"If anything," he said, "President Trump'southward behave was an set on on the First Subpoena and equal protection rights that millions of Americans exercised when they voted last yr, frequently under extraordinarily difficult and arduous circumstances."
One thing Biden and his staff reject to discuss: Trump's impeachment trial.
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For weeks, President Biden and his aides accept tried to frame the second impeachment of his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, as a distraction from his efforts to fulfill the promises he made to the American people.
"I'g focused on my chore," the president told reporters on Th, "to bargain with the promises I made. And we all know nosotros take to move on."
That focus, he said, meant that on Midweek he had not watched the gruesome retelling of the events on January. 6 that the Autonomous House impeachment managers had shown in a series of stunning video clips because he had been "going straight through last dark, until a little after ix."
Mr. Biden did concede that "my gauge is some minds may be changed" every bit a outcome of the trial. But his press secretarial assistant, Jen Psaki, said subsequently that "he was not intending to give a project or prediction."
Despite the emotional and harrowing scenes that Autonomous lawmakers hope will define Mr. Trump'due south legacy, even if he is not convicted, White House officials take refused to engage in annihilation even tangentially related to the trial and have insisted they spend no fourth dimension thinking or talking about the former president who relentlessly attacked Mr. Biden.
"Information technology reminds people of why they so definitively wanted to turn the folio on Donald Trump'southward daily fever pitch versus the at-home, cool, controlled Joe Biden at 97.i degrees," said Rahm Emanuel, a White Firm primary of staff nether President Barack Obama and a one-time mayor of Chicago.
Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist, put it another way. "The longer Donald Trump stays fundamental to the news, the better it is for Biden," he said. "The abiding reminder of Trump's worst actions makes Biden look smashing past comparison, merely by acting sane."
And exhibiting a level of top-down message discipline that was rarely on display during the Trump presidency, Ms. Psaki has worked to reinforce the bulletin that the president'due south thoughts are not on the behavior of his predecessor and its consequences. "His view is that his role is — should be — currently focused on addressing the needs of the American people, putting people dorsum to work, addressing the pandemic."
But the trial has also provided Mr. Biden with some encompass equally he faced hurdles on some of his defining policy promises.
On Tuesday, as Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the atomic number 82 impeachment manager, fabricated an emotional appeal to senators, the White House backtracked on its stated goal of reopening "a majority of our schools" in the commencement 100 days of Mr. Biden'south presidency.
Mr. Trump'southward trial dominated headlines instead of Ms. Psaki's scaling dorsum the president's ambitions, saying the goal was for more than than 50 percent of schools to have "some teaching" in person "at to the lowest degree ane day a week" in the offset 100 days.
In an email, Ms. Psaki disputed the fact that her comments signified a retraction of previous promises. "We gave our offset definition of the specifics of a goal that had non yet been conspicuously defined for the public," she said.
Eugene Goodman and other officers volition receive the Congressional Gold Medal for their actions on Jan. 6.
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'We Volition Never Forget': Pelosi Calls for Medals for Capitol Defenders
Business firm Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday introduced legislation to award Congressional Gold Medals, the highest honor of Congress, to the Capitol Police and other law enforcement personnel for their actions on Jan. 6.
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Nosotros as well run across the extraordinary valor of the Capitol Law, who risked and gave their lives to save our Capitol, our democracy, our lives. They are martyrs for our democracy, martyrs for our democracy, those who lost their lives. That is why I am putting forth a resolution, introducing legislation to pay tribute to the Capitol Police and other law enforcement personnel who protected the Capitol, past giving them a Congressional Golden Medal, the highest accolade that Congress tin can bestow. The service of the Capitol Police force forcefulness that twenty-four hours brings honor to our democracy. Their accepting this accolade brings luster to this medal. We must always call back their sacrifice and stay vigilant against what I've said before, nearly what Abraham Lincoln said: "The silent artillery of fourth dimension." We volition never forget.
Amidst the harrowing images presented during the impeachment trial of former President Donald J. Trump, one video stood out: a Capitol Police officer sprinting toward a senator to warn of the aroused mob nearby.
The senator, Hand Romney of Utah, is shown turning on his heels and fleeing to safety.
"I don't think my family or my wife understood that I was as close every bit I might have been to real danger," Mr. Romney told reporters on Thursday, one day after the video showed Officeholder Eugene Goodman aiding him. "They were surprised and very, very beholden of Officer Goodman, in his existence there and directing me back to safety."
For Officer Goodman, it was the second time a video went viral displaying actions widely credited with saving members of Congress. The first, which showed him unmarried-handedly luring the mob abroad from the entrance to the Senate toward an area with reinforcements, turned him into a hero. The second has added to his lore.
Both accept catapulted Officeholder Goodman — a sometime Army infantryman who served in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq during a lethal time in the war — to fame he never sought.
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On Wednesday, after Mr. Romney watched the videos that showed Officer Goodman directing him to safety, he could be seen talking with the officeholder. Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, later walked over and fist bumped the officer.
On Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi singled out Officer Goodman for his courage when she introduced legislation to award the Capitol Police and other law enforcement personnel who responded on Jan. 6 with the Congressional Gilt Medal, the highest award of Congress. On Jan. 20, Officer Goodman was given the task of escorting Vice President Kamala Harris at the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Veterans who served aslope Officeholder Goodman in the 101st Airborne Division in Republic of iraq some 15 years ago say that the officeholder, known then as "Goody," never craved accolades.
"I saw him come out in front end of the vice president, and he immediately ducked to the right," said Mark Belda, who served with Officer Goodman in Republic of iraq. "I thought, that's definitely Goody."
Assay: 'Remember this day forever!' Trump said. Democrats are heeding his advice.
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As a day of violence and mayhem at the Capitol slid into evening last month, with bloodshed, glass shattered and democracy besieged, President Donald J. Trump posted a message on Twitter that seemed to celebrate the moment. "Remember this day forever!" he urged.
The House Democrats prosecuting him at his Senate impeachment trial barely a calendar month later hope to make sure everyone does.
With conviction in a polarized Senate seemingly out of reach, the Firm managers, equally the prosecutors are known, are aiming their arguments at the American people and historians who will i twenty-four hour period return judgment on him.
Through the expansive apply of unsettling video footage showing both Mr. Trump's words and the brutal rampage that followed, the managers are using their moment to ensure Mr. Trump is held answerable past those two groups, even if he is acquitted by the Senate.
"Regardless of the outcome of the trial, the get-go paragraph of historical accounts of the Trump presidency is likely" to exist the legacy of the riot that ended information technology, said Ken Gormley, who has written books on impeachment, presidents and the Constitution.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, 1 of Mr. Trump's more outspoken Republican critics, touched on that on Wednesday after the House managers played a searing sequence of never-before-seen images of the mob he inspired ransacking the Capitol.
Given what the country has now seen, prospects for a Trump comeback campaign in 2024 were thin, she said.
"I don't encounter how Donald Trump could be re-elected to the presidency again," Ms. Murkowski told reporters. "I but don't encounter that."
"The question is how much ability to boss the G.O.P. volition have been drained away by the time this is over," said Karl Rove, the Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush.
Mr. Trump'southward army camp acknowledges that the prosecution has been effective, but portrays it as an illegitimate smear borne of partisan animus. Jason Miller, a longtime adviser and campaign spokesman for Mr. Trump, told Fob Business, "the president is going to be involved in making sure we win dorsum the House and Senate in 2022."
Mr. Trump's legal squad, which will brainstorm its own arguments afterwards the House managers conclude theirs, dismissed the utilise of the video in the Senate trial as an inflammatory tactic to blame the former president for the deportment of others.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who testified against impeachment the outset fourth dimension the Firm lodged charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against Mr. Trump in 2019, said the managers this time were only playing to the crowd rather than making a legal statement.
"Much of the argument seems designed to enrage rather than convict," he said.
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In that regard, information technology was having an affect outside the chamber. Twitter reinforced on Wednesday that it will never allow its most famous former user dorsum onto its platform later cutting him off from his 89 million followers for inciting violence. And The Wall Street Journal's influential bourgeois editorial page said that Mr. Trump is permanently scarred regardless of whether he is convicted.
"History will remember," Mr. Trump declared in some other tweet near 10 days earlier the riot. That it will, and the trial this week will get a long way toward deciding what those memories volition be.
Americans grapple for meaning in Trump's trial. Hither's what they said about the 2 impeachments.
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It has been just over a year since former President Donald J. Trump first faced impeachment charges in the Senate, just so much has happened since then.
We asked more than two dozen voters — most of whom initially responded to a Survey Monkey poll and whom The New York Times reached out to during the get-go impeachment trial — to describe the impeachment in a single give-and-take.
Hither are excerpts from what they said.
'Consequential'
Oscar Gomez, 51, a business consultant in San Francisco who describes himself as "left of eye."
"Yous're accountable for your actions and words up until your last solar day of employment. In my assessment, at that place is direct connection between his words that twenty-four hours and the violence that followed."
'Necessary'
Jerry Iannacci, 53, an art teacher living in a Philadelphia suburb who says he is contained.
"At that place'south no mode to not go through with it. Is it going to carve up the country? I don't know that the gap can be any wider than it is at present. If one side decided that armed insurrection was the way to go, what'south worse? They commandeer tanks next time? They notice a few ex-Air Force pilots who tin can fly a plane and they buy a surplus F-16?"
'Unnecessary'
Cherece Mendieta, 47, is a conservative in Houston.
"They're impeaching a human being for fighting for what he believes in. Did he tell them, 'Go tempest the Capitol; get threaten their lives'? No, he didn't. Information technology's ridiculous."
'Fiasco'
Bill Marcy is a former constabulary enforcement officer who traveled to Washington on Jan. six to hear Mr. Trump speak, but he said he was not role of the crowd that went to the Capitol.
"At that place'south no responsibleness Donald Trump has for what happened."
Prototype
'Justified'
Jimmy Welch, 54, is a Republican and former Trump supporter from Louisville, Ky.
"At my chore, I couldn't come in and spread a bunch of lies and get people riled up and have a strike without repercussions."
'Unjustifiable'
Ragan Fletcher, 21, is a Republican student at Belmont Academy in Nashville.
"I think that he just has his Get-go Amendment rights to gratuitous voice communication."
'Merry-go-round'
Desiré Hardison, 38, is a Democrat from New York Metropolis who said she believed that Mr. Trump should be convicted.
"Information technology'southward a joke, it's a carnival game. It doesn't go anywhere, like walking on a treadmill. Like a merry-go-circular, yous're only sitting at that place and you're watching the horses going up and down. What's actually happening? Nothing."
'Abusive'
William Dawson, 69, is a Republican and a behavior annotator from Torrance, Calif.
"He's not even in office. You're going to impeach somebody who'south already gone? I believe that constitutionally, that'due south a problem. And I believe it'southward unfair."
'Cleansing'
Terry Morrison, 8four, is a retiree in Wisconsin, and a old Republican who drifted toward the Democratic Party.
"Some on the right take come to sympathize Mr. Trump and his followers, from my perspective, more correctly than they did a year ago. Many of those were treating information technology as only left-correct politics. Now, I call up more on the right come across this as a moral illness threatening the very fiber of the United States."
Rick Rojas , Will Wright , Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio , Lucy Tompkins and Jake Frankenfield contributed reporting.
Twitter suspends Project Veritas, a conservative group, over tweets.
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Twitter on Thursday said information technology had suspended the official business relationship of Project Veritas, a conservative activist group, because the account posted private information.
The social media company likewise temporarily locked the business relationship of James O'Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas.
Mr. O'Keefe will accept to delete a tweet that violated Twitter'due south rules before he can tweet again, Twitter said.
The tweets that Twitter said violated its policies against posting private information showed a Project Veritas staffer questioning a Facebook executive, Guy Rosen, outside his home.
"The account, @Project_Veritas, was permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter'south individual data policy," a Twitter spokeswoman said.
Mr. O'Keefe said Project Veritas had appealed Twitter's decision.
"It would exist unconscionable for me to take down our reporting where information technology didn't violate anyone'due south privacy rights," he said.
Trump'due south second impeachment trial draws a larger Tv set audition than the first.
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More than 12 million people have watched alive idiot box coverage of the 2nd Senate impeachment trial of quondam President Donald J. Trump, an audience larger than the ane for the kickoff trial a little more than a twelvemonth ago, according to Nielsen.
An audience of 12.iv million tuned into the three major cablevision news stations and the 3 major broadcast networks on Tuesday afternoon, when prosecutors started making their case on the Senate floor. Eleven million watched the opening arguments in the impeachment trial on Jan. 21, 2020.
Terminal year, viewership brutal sharply on the 2d day of trial coverage, to 8.8 million. That was non the case on Wednesday. With NBC's figures non yet available, the audition for the other 5 broadcast and cable networks stood at 12.3 million, Nielsen reported.
Some media executives had forecast that a trial of a president no longer in function would not attract a large audience. But many Americans are working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. And as a television spectacle, the 2nd trial has been a sharp contrast with the starting time.
Final twelvemonth's deliberations centered on presidential abuse of power and obstacle of justice. This fourth dimension effectually, prosecutors presented chilling, never-earlier-seen security footage of the storming of the Capitol on Jan. half-dozen to help them brand the instance that Mr. Trump pushed his supporters toward violence.
Interest in the trial was highest on MSNBC, which features a lineup of anchors and analysts who are highly critical of the sometime president; the network averaged an audience of three 1000000 on Tuesday and 3.five million on Wednesday. CNN had two.viii million viewers on Tuesday and 3.2 one thousand thousand on Wednesday. CNN also drew the largest audience betwixt the ages of 25 and 54, the demographic most important to advertisers.
Fox News, with its prime-time hosts supportive of Mr. Trump, had the everyman viewership of the iii major cablevision news networks, and its audience dropped to 1.two one thousand thousand on Th from ii one thousand thousand on Wednesday.
The overall audience for the trial coverage was smaller than the number of viewers who watched other recent big political events. Nearly 40 million tuned in for President Biden'southward Inaugural Accost, and more than 21 million watched every bit the networks projected that he was the election winner in November.
Audience figures for last year's impeachment trial fluctuated 24-hour interval to day. The Senate vote, which resulted in an acquittal, attracted the largest audience, nearly xiv million viewers.
'If Trump asks me to come up, I volition,' Oath Keepers member texted before Capitol attack, federal officials say.
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Chilling new details emerged on Thursday in the plot past the Adjuration Keepers militia group to tempest the Capitol as prosecutors said that an Ohio-based member of the organization was planning training sessions "for urban warfare, riot control and rescue operations" as early as 1 week earlier Election Mean solar day.
Before long after the election, prosecutors said, the Oath Keeper member, Jessica Watkins, told an associate that she was "awaiting direction from President Trump" nearly what to do most the results of the vote. "POTUS has the right to activate units likewise," Ms. Watkins wrote in a text message to the unnamed associate on November. 9. "If Trump asks me to come, I volition."
The new accounts nearly Ms. Watkins — i of three Oath Keeper members charged with conspiracy in connection with the Capitol attack — were contained in a striking government memo that sought her detention earlier trial. In the memo, prosecutors said Ms. Watkins went to Washington on Jan. 6 with as many every bit 40 other members of the group, and that she and one of her co-defendants, Thomas E. Caldwell, had planned to phase "a quick reaction force" of more than militiamen outside the metropolis to serve as armed reinforcements.
The federal authorities have now brought charges against more than than 200 people in the assault on the Capitol last month, only the case against Ms. Watkins, Mr. Caldwell and their third co-defendant, Donovan Crowl, is one of the most serious to have so far emerged from the vast investigation. This week, Mr. Caldwell asked a gauge to release him from custody, saying he was an injured Navy veteran with more than than 30 years of experience with top undercover matters. Ms. Watkins and Mr. Crowl are besides still in jail and are likely to make similar requests to be released.
Shortly later the three militia members were arrested last calendar month, prosecutors said that they were some of the first rioters to have planned their function in the attack on the Capitol instead of merely storming the building spontaneously. Federal agents said that Mr. Caldwell, a 66-year-quondam one-time Navy officer, had advised his fellow militia members to stay at a particular Comfort Inn in the Washington suburbs, noting that it offered a adept base to "hunt at night" — an apparent reference to chasing left-wing activists. Ms. Watkins, a 38-twelvemonth-quondam bar owner from Ohio, patently rented a room at the hotel under an assumed name, the agents said.
The government memo filed on Thursday suggested that the investigation into the Oath Keepers, a group that largely draws its membership from former military and law enforcement personnel, has started to intensify. Prosecutors indicated that they now accept access to Ms. Watkins' personal text messages, including some in which she described the prospect of Joseph R. Biden Jr. becoming president as "an existential threat."
"Biden may notwithstanding be our president," she wrote on Nov. 17. "If he is, our fashion of life as we know it is over. Our Commonwealth would be over. So information technology is our duty as Americans to fight, impale and die for our rights."
Past the end of Dec, prosecutors said, Ms. Watkins, a military veteran who owns a bar in rural Ohio, was making plans to go to Washington on the solar day of the assault on the Capitol.
"We plan on going to DC on the 6th" because "Trump wants all able bodied Patriots to come," she wrote to Mr. Crowl on Dec. 29.
"If Trump activates the Coup Human activity," she added, "I'd hate to miss it."
The graphic videos of the Capitol riot struck a chord with many G.O.P. senators, but they remain unlikely to captive Trump.
Prototype
Later watching graphic video on Wednesday from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, many Republican senators denounced the violence but said they were still inclined to acquit former President Donald J. Trump of the charge that he incited an insurrection.
Speaking to reporters in the hallways of the Capitol, Republican senators fabricated a variety of arguments in Mr. Trump's defense: that the matter should be decided by federal prosecutors, that the trial was unconstitutional since he is an ex-president, and that Mr. Trump's words to his supporters fell brusk of the legal standard for incitement.
Some argued that Mr. Trump'southward language was no dissimilar from passionate statements coming from Democrats in opposing the former president. And i, Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, compared the rampage at the Capitol to protests for racial justice last year that turned trigger-happy, suggesting that the old president could not be held to business relationship for the January. half dozen riot whatever more than than Democrats could for those events.
"I mean, you have a summertime where people all over the country were doing similar kinds of things," said Mr. Blunt, the fourth-ranking Republican. "I don't know what the other side volition show from Seattle and Portland and other places."
He added that he "didn't encounter a case a prosecutor could make against the president." (The standard for conviction in impeachment is different than in a criminal trial; prosecutors must testify the official committed treason, bribery or "high crimes and misdemeanors" — typically understood as the utilise of power to threaten the constitutional order — not necessarily that he broke a constabulary.)
Forty-iv Republican senators — all merely 6 in the Senate — voted on Tuesday against moving forward with the trial, arguing that information technology is unconstitutional since Mr. Trump is no longer in role. Seventeen Republicans would have to join every Democrat to achieve the 2-thirds threshold for an impeachment conviction.
Asked if anything had changed after he viewed the video on Wednesday, Senator Tim Scott, Republican of Due south Carolina, said he believed Firm managers would "at best" get six Republicans to vote for conviction.
"Probably five, but maybe vi," Mr. Scott said.
Image
The 6 Republican senators who voted to movement forward with the trial were: Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. iii Republican, said he wished Mr. Trump had "used different linguistic communication," but "I don't call back it's ramble" for the Senate to effort him.
"For those of us that truly don't believe that we have that ramble potency, that becomes a pretty large obstacle for them to overcome," he said.
Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, said the video made him "angry," but that Mr. Trump had not been the only one using overheated political messaging.
"There are a number of people effectually here that, I've said before, have been placing tinder in that tinder box," Mr. Tillis said. "And I retrieve every one of them should reverberate on their words and really recall twice about what they should say."
A majority of Republicans still view Biden's election as illegitimate, a poll finds.
Prototype
A majority of Republicans withal view President Biden's election every bit illegitimate — and more than half would justify the use of forcefulness to defend "the traditional American way of life," co-ordinate to a poll released on Twenty-four hours 3 of former President Donald J. Trump's impeachment trial.
2-thirds of Republicans — 66 pct — said Mr. Biden's ballot was non legitimate, compared with far smaller percentages of Democrats and independents who question the outcome, co-ordinate to a survey taken during the concluding 10 days of Jan past the American Enterprise Establish, a nonpartisan think-tank that promotes conservative economic policies.
Taken as a whole, 2-thirds of Americans said Mr. Biden's win was legitimate, co-ordinate to the poll.
At that place was an educational divide embedded in the political carve up: 75 percent of Republicans without college degrees even so question the results, compared to 48 percent of those in the political party identifying themselves as higher educated.
The nearly eye-opening finding, notwithstanding, was the response to this sentence presented to respondents: "The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use strength to save it."
While sixty percent of those surveyed rejected the idea outright, 55 percent of Republicans said they agreed with assertion — roughly three times the percentage of Democrats who expressed support for the use of force, according to the survey, which polled 2,016 U.South. adults.
The report's authors added an important caveat: Support for the use of violence, even amid those who said they would consider it, was unenthusiastic, with ix pct of Americans over all and xiii percent of Republicans proverb they "completely" concur with the necessity of taking violent actions if leaders fail.
The poll likewise showed that many Republicans now entertain false claims promoted by the far right of the party, with half claiming that left-wing antifa activists — and not Trump supporters — instigated the attack on the Capitol.
The survey was conducted past the found'southward Survey Centre on American Life. Interviews were conducted among a random sample of U.S. adults using a spider web-based panel designed to exist representative of the U.Southward. general population. Its margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The poll comes at a moment of extraordinary stress for the Republican Political party as it struggles to movement forward following the loss of a securely polarizing former president who maintains a tight grip on his political party'due south conservative base.
Last Friday, more than 100 anti-Trump Republicans — many of them well-known dissenters agile on social media and the cable networks — participated in a Zoom call to discuss creating a breakaway party group to promote "principled conservatism," a direct rebuke of Mr. Trump, co-ordinate to one of the participants.
Creation of the party, which would potentially run heart-right candidates around the country, was reported earlier by Reuters.
The American Enterprise Plant's poll offered the group a glimmer of hope: While nearly 80 per centum of Republicans still back up Mr. Trump, those surveyed said their loyalty lies more with the party than the former president, past a 63-to-37 percent margin.
Pompeo, a chief critic of Beijing, passed out party favors made with parts from China.
Epitome
In his more than 2 years as secretary of state, Mike Pompeo pulled no punches confronting Mainland china, regularly criticizing it for man rights abuses, military machine aggressions and the spread of the coronavirus.
Simply when it came to passing out party favors, Mr. Pompeo relied on the country to help produce the perfect pen.
Documents released on Th show that Mr. Pompeo used taxpayer funds to purchase 400 specially embossed pens, worth more than than $x,000 in total, for guests who attended private dinners at the State Department as he mulled his political future.
The pens were the topic of several weeks of correspondence in 2022 between unidentified State Department employees and a Florida-based vendor who was hired to design souvenirs for the so-called Madison Dinners that Mr. Pompeo and his wife, Susan, hosted.
Colors, etching and emblems for the pens were discussed and then reconsidered, the documents show. At one signal, an eager section employee needed to know how quickly they could exist delivered to Washington.
The vendor advised information technology would take more fourth dimension considering "the little emblems on the pens are made in Prc."
Mr. Pompeo, who called the coronavirus "the Wuhan virus" for where it originated and constantly hammered of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, was among the most hawkish People's republic of china critics amongst President Donald J. Trump's advisers. Many of his concerns were broadly shared among American and strange officials, as China violated human rights against ethnic Uighurs and protesters in Hong Kong, and sought to muscle in on Taiwan and disputed waters.
But Mr. Pompeo himself came under widespread criticism over the possible misuse of official Country Department funds for his personal and political do good, as the Madison Dinners became a focus of an inspector general's enquiry.
The dinners were held from 2022 to 2022 and hosted about a dozen American concern leaders, conservative political officials and a scattering of diplomats and strange dignitaries. In all, the gatherings cost at least $43,000, co-ordinate to earlier documents released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
The watchdog grouping has sued the authorities under the Freedom of Information Act for data virtually the dinners and Mr. Pompeo's other activities that might be construed as political while he was in part. The latest tranche of documents, released on Thursday, likewise included receipts for a few thousand dollars for nutrient, printed tickets and individual contractors to operate the elevators at the Land Department for guests every bit they arrived and departed.
Mr. Pompeo has previously dedicated the dinners as the kind of soft-diplomacy events that previous secretaries of land also held. He did not respond to a request for comment on Th.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/02/11/us/impeachment-trial
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