Page:Trial Memorandum of the United States House of Representatives in the Second Impeachment Trial of President Donald John Trump.pdf/23

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violence at his instigation—and the Capitol building just a short march away, where Vice President Pence presided over the final, definitive accounting of President Trump’s electoral loss.

D. President Trump Incites Insurrectionists to Attack the Capitol

Shortly before noon on January 6, President Trump took the stage at his “Save America Rally” and spoke from a podium bearing the Seal of the President of the United States.[1] By the time he addressed the angry crowd, Rudy Giuliani (his lawyer) had called for “trial by combat.”[2] President Trump praised Giuliani, saying “he’s got guts, he fights.”

Over the following hour, President Trump repeatedly reiterated his claim that Democrats had “stolen” the election. He described vote tranches that favored President Biden as “explosions of bullshit.”[3] He exhorted the crowd to “fight much harder” to “stop the steal” and “take back our country.”[4] He also demanded again that Vice President Pence illegally interfere with the work of the Joint Session—a position that the Vice President rejected even as President Trump spoke. Time and again, President Trump declared that the future of the country was on the line and that only the crowd assembled before him could stop the massive fraud taking place at the Capitol.

At numerous points during the rally, President Trump urged the crowd toward the Capitol, where the Joint Session was about to start.[5] In response, an early wave surged toward the building and started to pull down barricades around its perimeter. Twenty minutes into the rally, President Trump said that those marching toward the Capitol should do so “peacefully.” But then he spoke

  1. ↑ Watch LIVE: Save America March at The Ellipse featuring President @realDonaldTrumpItalic text, RSBN TV (Jan. 6, 2020).
  2. ↑ Id.; see also Rudy Giuliani Speech Transcript at Trump’s Washington, D.C. Rally: Wants ‘Trial by Combat’, Rev (Jan. 6, 2021)
  3. ↑ Watch LIVE: Save America March at The Ellipse featuring President @realDonaldTrump, RSBN TV (Jan. 6, 2020).
  4. ↑ Id.; see also Maggie Haberman, Trump Told Crowd ‘You Will Never Take Back Our Country with Weakness’, N.Y.Times (Jan. 6, 2021).
  5. ↑ Watch LIVE: Save America March at The Ellipse featuring President @realDonaldTrump, RSBN TV (Jan. 6, 2020).
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