Yesterday House Impeachment Managers made it clear that Trump's terrorist insurrection at The Capitol was a premeditated event. Rather than support a peaceful transfer of power, Trump staged and incited a violent attack at the Capitol. The evidence proved to me that Donald Trump is a very sick, dangerous, and evil man--a man whose self-interest trumps anything and anyone else. Trump will do anything to prop up his wealth, power, privilege, and pleasure, and that makes him a destructive and dangerous man.
House Impeachment Managers proved the following points:
- Trump began election fraud rhetoric in the summer of 2020 when polls showed his popularity slipping--he created a scenario where he either won the election or the election was stolen.
- Trump groomed his loyal supporters by spreading that Big Lie narrative continously at rallies, interviews, and via social media. Trump's keen ability to manipulate others for his own gain, enabled him to trick a lot of people into believing his lies, propaganda, and misinformation.
- When it became clear, that he was losing the election on the day of the election, he started a stop-the-count campaign, and incited some violence and obstruction at vote counting places.
- After it was clear that Joe Biden won, Trump doubled down on his fraud claims, and began a series of events to prove the election was fraudulent--none of those actions worked. The election was deemed a free and fair election over and over again.
- When Trump ran out of legal ways to contest the election, he tried to illegally change the outcome by asking election officials to change the vote. That didn't work either.
- Next he planned a Stop-the-Steal rally at the Elipse for the day and time of the electoral college certification in D.C. For eighteen days he advertised the event at rallies, via social media, and through his multiple channels. He spent $50,000,000 of his defense fund on advertisements for this event. In his messaging, he continually told people that the election was fradulent and they had to fight like hell. He cultivated his extremist followers to become a cult-like, angry, and violent mob.
- The insurrection was clearly a well organized event led by Trump. Trump gave a fiery, manipulative, insurrection-call speech complete with self-praise, praise for his insurgents, lots of lies, and directives to go to the Capitol and fight. We saw Trump's angry mob reading and reacting to his messages throughout the insurrection event--there was significant proof that this angry, violent mob was doing Trump's bidding as they gathered at the Elipse, stormed the Capitol, threatened Capitol police and others, vandalized, looted, and obstructed justice by stopping the electoral college vote certification which was in session when the Capitol was stormed.
- To me the most damming evidence is that while the violent insurrectionists killed, injured, terrorized, vandalized, looted, and obstructed justice, Trump delighted in the carnage, and did not act to stop it for hours. This was a clear dereliction of duty by a President who had the power to stop this deadly violence and obstruction of justice.
- Further, many lawmakers, including his Republican cronies, called upon him to stop the carnage throughout the event--they knew he was the guy in charge so they reached out to Trump, the Commander-in-Chief to stop the violence, and Trump did nothing--he just sat back and watched it happen, he let Americans get killed, injured, threatened, and he allowed the obstruction of a peaceful transfer of power. Donald Trump willed the deaths of the second and third person in the chain of command, Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. This is sick, dangerous, deadly, and a clear abuse of power and infidelity to his oath of office.
At the end of yesterday's presentation, one Republican stood up and asked for words about him to be struck from the record. That Republican Senator, Mike Lee, looked very guilty, worried, angry, and upset as he spoke. The words spoken about him, which I didn't think much about at the time, clearly triggered his reaction and have since made everyone think that there's more to the story regarding his involvement in the event--some suspect he may have been complicit with planning and carrying out the violent insurrection.
There's enough evidence to show Trump's dereliction of duty, and Trump should be impeached. No President of the United States or any elected official should be able to stage and incite a deadly insurrection, a violent attack, and a dangerous obstruction of justice. When you read the Constitution, it is clear that Trump abused his power.
Why some Republicans still say they won't vote for impeachment is frightening--those Senators are clearly complicit in Trump's attack, and clearly don't care about the American people or our country. They are costing all of us a lot of grief and money, as it is likely that a full investigation will follow, and that some of those senators will be prosecuted for their involvement in the attack.
I still hope that the Senators do the right thing. I hope they will be courageous enough to do what is right here. I hope they will think about the lives that were ended and harmed during Trump's self-serving violent insurrection, and the grave cost in money, time, energy, reputation, and justice that this deadly event created for all of us.
I hope every American who feels that Trump needs to be held accountable will contact their senators and tell them to do the right thing. Those senators afraid of their Trump-loving base, simply have to tell those people that Trump doesn't care about any of them--he planned and carried out the violent insurrection that resulted in the death and injury of many including his loyal followers. He also led many of his loyal followers to behave in criminal ways that resulted in expensive prosecutions, jail time, and pain and suffering for them and their loved ones. Trump used and abused his own followers to do his dirty work, and then when he was accused, he simply blamed them and called for their accountability and prosecution. Trump is a sick and dangerous man like Hitler who will hurt and harm anyone to take care of himself. Do the right thing, America--Convict Trump.