Ahead of day two of ex-President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, aides for the House impeachment case managers said that the team would reveal “never-seen-before” footage of the rioting at the Capitol on January 6. Originally, the Democrat-led House impeached Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection after the rioters at the Capitol used his words as an explicit pretense for their actions. Trump spent months lying to his supporters about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, and at the Capitol, his supporters attempted to forcibly stop the certification of Biden’s electoral college win.
The “never-seen-before” footage of the Capitol rioting that House impeachment managers were set to share on Wednesday was taken from security cameras on the premises. Aides said that the footage would “provide new insight into both the extreme violence that everyone saw, the risk and the threat that it could have led to further violence and death to many but for the brave actions of the officers,” adding that the footage “shows really the extent of what Donald Trump unleashed on our Capitol.”
Repeatedly, individuals involved in the rioting have explicitly stated that they acted in direct response to rhetoric from Trump, who admonished his supporters to “fight like hell” on the day of the rioting itself. On Tuesday, House impeachment managers shared a 13-minute montage of footage from the rioting that included, among other travesties, footage of a Trump supporter ranting “Where the fuck are they?” while storming through the Capitol building. The intention to perpetrate violence is clear.
On Wednesday, the aides for House impeachment managers, who function as prosecutors in the case, added as follows:
‘We have the goods. Yesterday was our dry constitutional argument day. Today, the actual trial begins. We have the goods, we will be presenting the goods. We will be tying the evidence all together in a compelling case that will make it clear for everyone — Democrats, Republicans, everyone — that Donald Trump committed the most heinous constitutional crime possible.’
Originally, 10 House Republicans — including Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who is a member of party leadership — voted in favor of impeaching Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection. In the Senate, just six Republicans voted in favor of moving forward with the trial proceedings on Tuesday, while a full 44 GOP Senators voted against the move. It’s not yet clear how a number of high-profile Senate Republicans will vote at the conclusion of the proceedings, when 67 votes are required for conviction.
