Over the weekend, seven Republican Senators voted in favor of the conviction of ex-President Donald Trump on a charge of incitement of insurrection, including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. During a subsequent appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning, Cassidy reiterated his view that Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against the U.S. government. On January 6, a Trump-inspired mob stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to forcibly stop the formal certification of Joe Biden’s victory, and Cassidy said over the weekend that he felt that Trump clearly “wished that lawmakers be intimidated.”
Although Trump’s supporters have insisted that his January 6 speech didn’t incite the mob — the argument was never that the January 6 speech alone gave the mob its fuel! For months, Trump spread the delusional lie that the election was rigged for Biden, and the rioters operated under this exact pretense. Cassidy observed as follows:
‘I listened very carefully to all the arguments, but if you describe insurrection as I did — as an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power — we can see the president for two months after the election promoting that the election was stolen. People still tell me they think Dominion rigged those machines with Hugo Chavez from Venezuela. That is not true, and all the news organizations that promoted that have retracted.’
Cassidy added the following:
‘[Trump] then scheduled the rally for January the 6th, just when the transfer of power is to take place, and he brought together a crowd, but a portion of that was transformed into a mob, and when they went into the Capitol, it was clear that he wished that lawmakers be intimidated, and even after he knew there was violence taking place, he continued to basically sanction the mob being there, and not until later did he actually ask them to leave. All of that points to a motive and a method, and that is wrong. He should be held accountable.’
Check out his comments below:
NEW: GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict former Pres. Trump in his second impeachment trial, explains his decision: "It was clear that he wished that lawmakers be intimidated." https://t.co/DZBFQh5kXW pic.twitter.com/tkJy8Mp4g0
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 14, 2021
The connection between Trump’s rhetoric and the violence at the Capitol on January 6 is obvious. At the January 6 rally in D.C. where Trump himself spoke, members of the crowd shouted out “Storm the Capitol!” and “invade the Capitol building,” calling for the deadly violence that unfolded just a short time later.
“‘Storm the Capitol.’ ‘Invade the Capitol.’… ‘Take the Capitol right now.’ These were the words of the crowd. Trump was telling them to fight and he would keep telling them to fight throughout the rest of his speech.” pic.twitter.com/GUWXMYZgdn
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) February 10, 2021
