WATCH: Latest Impeachment Video Shows Trump Supporters Bragging About Carrying Out His Will By Storming the Capitol
Democrats launched Day 3 of Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial by poring through the evidence that the storming of the U.S. Capitol occurred precisely because the ex-president’s supporters believed he wanted them to violently lay siege to Congress.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) began the proceeding by announcing her intent to focus on “the perspective of the insurrectionists themselves.”
“Their own statements before, during, and after the attack make clear the attack was done for Donald Trump, at his instructions, and to fulfill his wishes,” she said. “Donald Trump sent them there. They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders, and we know that because they said so.”
From there, DeGette presented multiple examples of the Capitol rioters cheering the former president on January 6th and repeating phrases like “stop the steal” and “fight for Trump.”
She also produced footage, social media posts, and numerous statements from Trump supporters who bragged of their infiltration and claimed they were following orders from the ex-president.
“Does [Joe Biden] not realize President Trump called us to siege the place?” one woman said. Another person was recorded on a livestream saying “we wait and take orders from our president.”
A third man wanted to call the White House from one of the Capitol office phones because “he’ll be happy. We are fighting for Trump.”
After more examples of the rioters taking pride in their involvement and predicting Trump’s approval, DeGette honed in on her point that the mob laid siege to Congress because they believed there would be no legal consequences for supposedly carrying out Trump’s will. She then noted that several of the people who’ve been arrested since the riot are now saying they feel duped by Trump, and that they wouldn’t have invaded the Capitol if the president didn’t make them think that’s what he wanted.
In their statements after the attack, insurrectionist routinely echoed what they had said before and during the attack: they were there because the president told them to be. Now, look, the lawyers who are saying that their clients were told to commit these acts by Mr. Trump, they know that putting the blame on the president doesn’t exonerate their clients. They are just saying it, frankly, because that’s exactly what happened.
Watch above, via Fox News.
