WASHINGTON -- U.S. House Democrats prosecuting Donald Trump's impeachment said Thursday the Capitol invaders believed they were acting on 鈥渢he president's orders鈥� and reflected his violent rhetoric when they stormed the building aiming to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's election.
The prosecutors described in stark, personal terms the horror they faced that day and showed the many public and explicit instructions Trump gave his supporters - both in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack and at his midday rally that unleashed the mob on the Capitol. Rioters in videos, some posted to social media by themselves, talked about how they were doing it all for Trump.
鈥淲e were invited here,鈥� said one. 鈥淭rump sent us,鈥� said another. 鈥淗e'll be happy. We're fighting for Trump.鈥� Five people died.
鈥淭hey truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president's orders,鈥� said Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado. 鈥淭he president told them to be there.鈥�
Prosecutors were wrapping up their two days of opening arguments on Thursday, with Trump's defence taking the floor on Friday. The entire process could wind up with a vote by this weekend. The Democrats, with little hope of conviction by two-thirds of the Senate, are making their most graphic case to the American public, while Trump's lawyers are focused on legal rather than emotional or historic questions, hoping to get it all behind him as quickly as possible.
At the White House, President Joe Biden said he believed 鈥渟ome minds may be changed鈥� after senators saw chilling security video Wednesday of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, including of rioters searching menacingly for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice-President Mike Pence.
Biden said he didn't watch any of the previous day's proceedings live but later saw news coverage.
This second impeachment trial, on the charge of incitement of insurrection, has echoes of last year's impeachment over the Ukraine matter, as prosecutors warn senators that left unchecked Trump poses a danger to the civic order. Even out of office, the former president holds influence over large swaths of voters.
The prosecutors on Thursday drew a direct line from his repeated comments condoning and even celebrating violence - praising 鈥渂oth sides鈥� after the 2017 outbreak at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and urging his rally crowd last month to go to the Capitol and fight for his presidency.
鈥淭here's a pattern staring us in the face,鈥� said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the lead prosecutor.
鈥淲hen Donald Trump tells the crowd as he did on January 6 to fight like hell, or you won't have a country anymore. He meant for them to fight like hell.鈥�
Trump lawyers will argue later this week that his words were protected by the Constitution's First Amendment and just a figure of speech.
Though most of the Senate jurors seem to have made up their minds, making Trump's acquittal likely, the never-before-seen audio and video released Wednesday is now a key exhibit in Trump's impeachment trial as lawmakers prosecuting the case argue Trump should be convicted of inciting the siege.
Senators sat riveted as the jarring video played in the chamber. Senators shook their heads, folded their arms and furrowed their brows. Screams from the audio and video filled the Senate chamber. Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma bent his head at one point, another GOP colleague putting his hand on his arm in comfort.
Videos of the siege have been circulating since the day of the riot, but the graphic compilation shown to senators Wednesday amounted to a more complete narrative, a moment-by-moment retelling of one of the nation's most alarming days. In addition to the evident chaos and danger, it offered fresh details on the attackers, scenes of police heroism and cries of distress. And it underscored how dangerously close the rioters came to the nation's leaders, shifting the focus of the trial from an academic debate about the Constitution to a raw retelling of the assault.
The footage showed the mob smashing into the building, rioters engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police and audio of Capitol police officers pleading for back-up. Rioters were seen roaming the halls chanting 鈥淗ang Mike Pence,鈥� and eerily singing out 鈥淲here's Nancy?鈥� in search for Pelosi.
Pence, who had been presiding over a session to certify Biden's election victory over Trump - thus earning Trump's censure - was shown being rushed to safety, where he sheltered in an office with his family just 100 feet from the rioters. Pelosi was seen being evacuated from the complex as her staff hid behind doors in her suite of offices.
The goal of the presentation was to cast Trump not as an innocent bystander but rather as the 鈥渋nciter in chief鈥� who spent months spreading falsehoods about the election.
鈥淭his attack never would have happened, but for Donald Trump,鈥� Rep. Madeleine Dean, one of the impeachment managers, said as she choked back emotion. 鈥淎nd so they came, draped in Trump's flag, and used our flag, the American flag, to batter and to bludgeon.鈥�
Trump's lawyers are likely to blame the rioters themselves for the violence.
The first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office, Trump is also the first to be twice impeached.
His lawyers also say he cannot be convicted because he is already gone from the White House. Even though the Senate rejected that argument in Tuesday's vote to proceed to the trial, the legal issue could resonate with Senate Republicans eager to acquit Trump without being seen as condoning his behaviour.
While six Republicans joined with Democrats to vote to proceed with the trial on Tuesday, the 56-44 vote was far from the two-thirds threshold of 67 votes needed for conviction.
Minds did not seem to be changing Wednesday, even after senators watched the graphic video.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was among those leading the effort to challenge the Electoral College tally, said, 鈥淭he president's rhetoric is at times overheated, but this is not a referendum on whether you agree with everything the president says or tweets.鈥�
Trump's second impeachment trial is expected to diverge from the lengthy, complicated affair of a year ago. In that case, Trump was charged with having privately pressured Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden, then a Democratic rival for the presidency.
The Democratic-led House impeached the president swiftly, one week after the attack.
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Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire and Kevin Freking in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Houston and Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
