WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s legal team thoroughly distorted its statements of the rally that preceded the Capitol storm last month, taking advantage of the only instance in which Trump spoke of peaceful protest in his ” fight like hell, ”a throw of anger and grievances.
Trump’s attorney, Michael van der Veen, accused House’s Democratic prosecution managers of showing selectively edited scenes of violence and Trump’s words on January 6th.
Still, he ignored the incendiary substance and tenor of this staging speech, as well as the president’s words of affection for the attackers later, while still searching for lawmakers and looting his offices. He also ignored the fact that all of Trump’s provocations that day and for weeks before had the lie of an election stolen from the center.
Another Trump lawyer, Bruce Castor, denied the siege was an insurrection, saying it was an “art term” that did not deserve the events of that day. It is actually a term of dictionaries and legal texts, and what happened on January 6 was an insurrection.
A look at the rhetoric of the Senate indictment trial, where Trump is accused of inciting the siege of the Capitol before Congress claimed his defeat against Joe Biden in the presidential election:
VAN DER VEEN: “No thinking person could seriously believe that the president’s speech on January 6 at the Ellipse was in any way an incitement to violence or insurrection. … Nothing in the text can ever be construed as encouraging, tolerant or attractive to any illegal activity. Far from promoting insurrection against the United States, the president’s statements explicitly encouraged attendees to exercise their rights in a peaceful and patriotic manner. “
THE FACTS: This characterization does not resemble Trump’s speech. For more than an hour, Trump defended the case that he and his supporters of the rally had been “deceived” and “defrauded” in the elections “called” by a “criminal enterprise” made up of some of the “weak” legislators whom the insurgents were about to face. .
As for Trump “explicitly” encouraging nonviolence, as the attorney said, the president’s only gesture in the speech was this fleeting comment, lost by the winds of rage that day: ” I know that everyone here will soon go to the Capitol building to make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically. ”
There was no other approximate call for calm, order, or respect for the institutions that Trump attacked in the speech as a “swamp.”
“This was the only time, the only time President Trump used the word ‘peaceful’ or any suggestion of nonviolence,” said Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, one of the Democratic leaders of Pennsylvania. dismissal. “President Trump used the word ‘fight’ or ‘fight’ twenty times. ‘
Your count is correct. In addition, Trump thanked supporters when they sang, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”
Certainly, not all of Trump’s “fight” words were on the march at the Capitol. Some were about the political struggle to reverse a fair and certified election he lost or his other struggles in Washington.
But he sent his followers to the Capitol with these words: “If you do not fight like hell, you will no longer have a country.”
That, after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani had told the crowd, “We’re going to stand trial.”
That, after Trump had summoned his supporters to Washington in the first place, with the promise, “Stay there, it will be wild!”
At the rally, Trump woke up his followers with words like these:
– “Let the weak come out. This is the moment of force. ”This referred to Congress Republicans who did not go along with their effort to subvert the election.
– “You have to show strength and you have to be strong.” This was specifically for the protesters.
– “When you catch someone in a scam, they are allowed to follow very different rules.” Despite this observation, van der Veen argued Friday that the “whole premise” of Trump’s concentration speech was that the democratic process “should be conducted in accordance with the letter of the law.”
– “You will have an illegitimate president. That’s what you’ll have, and we can’t let that happen. ” A reference to Biden’s rise to the presidency if they didn’t stop him.
– “Let’s go to the Capitol,” Trump told his followers, to “try to give them the kind of pride and audacity they need to get our country back. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” they.
For all this, his lawyer on Friday claimed that Trump had “devoted almost all of his speech to an expanded discussion” of the voting process.
During the melee that took place, Trump made a video telling the attackers that it was time to “go home.” Only when the violence was underway did he emphasize the need for “law and order” and “peace”. But he added: “We love you. You are very special people. ”Others are“ so bad and bad. ”
He subsequently followed up with a tweet expressing no concern about the deadly consequences of the siege. He seemed to see justice in what had happened.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred victory of electoral defeats is so ceremoniously and cruelly stripped of the great patriots who have been mistreated and unjustly for so long,” he wrote. “Go home with love and peace. Remember this day forever! “
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CASTOR: “It is clear that there was no insurrection. Insurrection is an art term, defined by law, which is to take over a country … a shadow government that takes TV stations and have a plan on what you will do when you finally take it the power “.
THE FACTS: It was a textbook insurrection.
As “defined in law,” an insurrection is “the act or case of revolution esp. Violently against civil or political authority or against an established government,” according to the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law.
According to U.S. code, the offense of insurrection is committed by “Whoever incites, sets up, assists, or participates in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or its laws, or gives aid or consolation to it.” “.
Aside from law and legal texts, insurrection is defined in Webster’s New World College Dictionary, which is used by The Associated Press, as “an uprising against established authority; rebellion; revolt “.
On January 6, the attackers physically and violently rose up against established authorities: Congress, while carrying out its constitutional functions, surrounded and protected by U.S. government personnel and police. Many in the siege intended to prevent Congress from claiming Trump’s defeat.
Insurrection is understood to mean a short-lived revolt that fails, as it did. Castor could have been combining an insurrection with a coup, suggesting a more organized and advanced effort to seize power, perhaps involving a shadow government willing to take over. January 6 was not that.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: A look at the veracity of the statements of political figures.
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