Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump

"I want to be very clear about what we will show you during the course of this trial. ...It will be helpful to think about president Trump's incitement of insurrection in three distinct parts: The Provocation, the Attack and the Harm."

"Let's start with the provocation. We will show... that this attack was provoked... incited by the president, and it was predictable... foreseeable."

"This mob was well orchestrated. Their conduct was intentional. They did it all in plain sight, proudly, openly, and loudly, because they... truly believed that they were doing this for him, that this was their patriotic duty. They even predicted that he would protect them, and for the most part, they were right."

"In his unique role as commander-in-chief of our country, and as the one person that the mob was listening to and following orders from, he had the power to stop it, and he didn't."

"Now some have said that president Trump's remarks, his speech on January 6th was just a speech. ...When in our history has a speech led thousands of people to storm our nation's Capitol with weapons, to scale the walls, break windows, kill a Capitol police officer?"

"This was not just a speech. It didn't just happen, and as you evaluate the facts... it will become clear, exactly where that mob came from...."

"President Trump's words, as you'll see, on January 6th, in that speech, just like the mob's action, were carefully chosen. Those words had a very specific meaning to that crowd... because in the weeks prior to, during, and after the election he used the same words over and over and over again."

"You will hear, over and over, three things: ...[1] The Big Lie that the Election was Stolen, full of fraud, rigged. You will hear, over and over, him using that lie to urge his supporters to never concede, and [2] Stop the Steal; and finally you will hear the call to arms, that it was his supporters' patriotic duty to [3] Fight Like Hell... to Stop the Steal, to stop the election from being stolen, by showing up in this very chamber to stop you, to stop us."

"I respectfully ask that you remember those three phrases as you consider the evidence today. The Election was Stolen, Stop the Steal, and Fight like Hell, because they did not just appear on January 6th."

"Let's start with "The Big Lie." You will see during this trial that the president realized... by last Spring that he could lose... the election. So... he started planting the seeds to get some of his supporters ready by saying that he could only lose the election, if it was stolen."

"[W]hat he did was create a no-lose scenario. Either he won the election, or he would have some angry supporters, not all, but some, who believed that if he lost, the election had to be rigged; and they would be angry because he was telling Americans that their vote had been stolen; and in America, our vote is our voice."

"So his false claims about election fraud, that was the drum-beat being used to inspire, instigate, and ignite them, to anger them."

"We all know what happened after that. He lost. He lost the election, but remember, he had that no-lose scenario... He told his base that the election was stolen, as he had forecast... and then he told them, your election has been stolen, but you cannot concede. You must stop the steal."

"Now while he's inciting his supporters, he's also simultaneously doing everything he possible can to overturn the election. First he begins with the courts, a legitimate avenue... to challenge the election, but he ignores all of their adverse rulings when all of his claims are thrown out."

"Then he moves on to trying to pressure state election officials to block the election results for his opponent, even though he lost in their states. You'll hear my fellow-managers discuss that..."

"Then he tries to threaten state election officials to actually change the votes to make him the winner, even threatening criminal penalties if they refused."

"He had the justice department investigate his claims. Even they found no support for those claims."

"So he tried to persuade some members of his party in Congress to block the certification of his vote, with attacks in public forums."

"When that failed, he tried to intimidate the Vice President of the United States of America to refuse to certify the vote, and send it back to the states."

"None of it worked. So... with his back against the wall, when all else has failed, he turns back to his supporters who he'd already spent months telling them that the election was stolen; and he amplified it further, he turned it up a notch. He told them that they had to be ready, not just to "Stop the Steal" but to "Fight like Hell.""

"You will see that in the months since the president made these statements, people listened. Armed supporters surrounded election officials' homes. The Secretary of State for Georgia got death threats."

"Officials warned the president that his rhetoric was dangerous and it was going to result in deadly violence; and that's what makes this so different because when he saw first-hand the violence that his conduct was creating, he didn't stop it. He didn't condemn the violence. He incited it further, and he got more specific."

"He didn't just tell then to fight like hell. He told them how, where, and when. He made it sure they had advance notice, 18 days advance notice. He sent his "save the day" for January 6th. He told them to march to the Capitol and fight like Hell."

"On January 6th... the exact same day that we were certifying the election results."

"What time was that rally scheduled for? The exact same time that this chamber was certifying the election results in joint session."

"When did he conclude his speech? Literally moments before Speaker Pelosi had gavelled us into session."

"Many of us were in the House during that joint session of Congress. ...and as we were standing there, fulfilling our solemn oath to the Constitution, the president was finishing his speech just a couple of miles away."

"How did he conclude that infamous speech? With a final call-to-action. He told them to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to come here; that it was their patriotic duty because the election had been stolen, and when they heard his speech they understood his words and what they meant, because they had heard it before."

"Let's take just a minute and... look at his words on January 6th as he spoke at the Save America Rally..."

"[E]ach of you heard those words before, so had the crowd. The president had spent months telling his supporters that the election had been... stolen, and he used this speech to incite them further, to inflame them to Stop the Steal, to stop the certification of the election results."

"Finally, the president used this speech as a call to arms. It was not rhetorical. Some of his supporters had been primed for this over many months."

"As you'll learn, days before this speech... there were vast reports across all major media outlets that thousands of people would be armed, that they'd be violent. You'll learn that Capitol police and the FBI reported in the days leading up to the attack, that thousands in the crowd would be targeting the Capitol specifically, that they had arrested people with guns, the night before the attack, on weapons charges. And this is what our commander-in-chief said to the crowd in the face of those warnings, right before they came here."

""You have to get your people to fight." He told them."

"Senators, this clearly is not just one speech. It didn't just happen. It was part of a carefully planned, months long effort with a very specific instruction. Show up on January 6th and get your people to fight the certification. He incited it. It was foreseeable."

"The president's former chief of staff... a retired Marine four star general, was confirmed by this body to be the Secretary of Homeland Security... That man was John Kelly, and on the day after the insurrection he said this."

"No surprise. The president had every reason to know that this would happen because he assembled the mob, he summoned the mob, and he incited the mob."

"He knew when he took that podium that fateful morning that those in attendance had heeded his words, and they were waiting for his orders to begin fighting."

"I do want to be clear about what happened during that terrible attack... president Trump, once again failed us, because when the violence erupted, when we and the law enforcement officials protecting us, protecting you, were under attack as each of you were being evacuated from this chamber from a violent mob, as we were being evacuated from the House, he could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. It was his duty as commander-in-chief to stop the violence, and he alone had that power. Not just because of his unique role as commander-in-chief, but because they believed that they were following his orders. They said so."

"You heard it from them. They were doing what he wanted them to do. They wouldn't have listened to you, to me, to the the Vice President of the United States who they were attacking. They didn't stop in the face of law enforcement, police officers fighting for their lives to stop them. They were following the President."

"He alone, the commander-in-chief, had the power to stop it, and he didn't."

"You will hear evidence... throughout the trial, about his refusal, as commander-in-chief, to respond to numerous desperate pleas, on the phone, across social media, begging him to stop the attack; and you will see his relentless attack on Vice President Pence, who was at that very moment hiding with his family as armed extremists were chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" calling him a traitor."

"You will see that even when he did finally, 3 1/2 hours into the attack, tell these people to go home, in peace. He added... "You're very special. We love you.""

"Think... of the lives lost that day, of the more than 140 wounded police officers and ask yourself, if as soon as this had started President Trump had simply gone on the TV, just logged onto Twitter and said, "Stop the Attack." If he had done so with even half as much force as he said "Stop the Steal!" How many lives would we have saved? Sadly he didn't do that."

"At the end of the day the president was not successful in stopping the certification. That we know, thanks to the bravery of our law enforcement, and to the bravery of the Senators in this room, each of you who still fulfilled your Constitutional duty, even under the threat of mortal peril."

"But there can be no doubt of the grave harm that he caused to our elected leaders, to us, our families, to all who work in the Capitol, our staff, your staff, to our brave Capitol police who defend us tirelessly with little thanks, who believed that they had a Commander in Chief who would defend and protect them, and instead put them in harm's way, to those killed for heeding his command, to our Democracy and the system which ensures that we have a President elected by the People, to our national security and our standing in the World."

"The harm was real! The damage was real!"

"Five people lost their lives, on that terrible tragic day!"

"A woman was shot dead fifty feet from where we later certified the Election results."

"And for those who question just how bad it was, criminal complaints recently unsealed by the Department of Justice are more than revealing. You'll see one of the documents on the screen. In the charging affidavit of one of the leaders of the "Proud Boys" we learned that members of this group said "they would have killed Mike Pence if given the chance." In another we learned of a Tweet in real time while they were in the building stating "We broke into the Capitol... we got inside, we did our part. ...We were looking for Nancy Pelosi to shoot her in the friggin' brain but we didn't find her.""

"And for anyone who suggests otherwise, these defendants themselves have told you exactly why they were here. You'll see this in the trial, that in the halls of the Capitol, on social media, in news interviews and in charging documents, they confirm, they were following the President's orders. You can see some of the statements on that screen. One who said "Trump wants all able bodied Patriots..." Another, that "President Trump is calling us to FIGHT! ...This isn't a joke." Another one, "I thought I was following my President. I thought I was following what we were called to do..." [A man heard in a live stream video that showed him standing within the Capitol building said,] "Our president wants us here... We wait and take orders from [our] president.""