'They could have killed all of us': 13 minutes that show how Trump incited insurrection

House Democratic impeachment managers played a harrowing video Tuesday laying out the timeline of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. The montage shows how Donald Trump’s words bookended the attack that left five people — including a Capitol Police officer — dead.

The video begins with Trump speaking at a rally near the White House, in which he tells his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight” to stop the election from being stolen. It ends with a tweet from Trump’s now-defunct Twitter account, in which he blames the lawmakers who did not vote to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory for the attack.

In all, the 13-minute video spells out the crux of the case against Trump, who is now standing trial in the Senate for a second time on one article of impeachment for inciting an insurrection.

According to an agreement between Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the first day of the trial is supposed to focus on whether the trial itself is constitutional. Trump and his GOP defenders say the trial is not because Trump is no longer president, and a former president cannot be tried. The House impeached Trump while he was still in office.

But Democrats first showed this video to lay out their evidence for why this trial needs to take place, before the impeachment managers eviscerated the argument that Trump cannot stand trial.

“Presidents can’t inflame insurrection in their final weeks and then walk away like nothing happened. And yet that is the rule that President Trump asks you to adopt,” Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse, one of the Democratic impeachment managers, said after the video aired.

Senate Republicans had to sit in the very chamber the insurrectionists desecrated to watch that video, which showed just how violent the mob was and how much deadlier the attack could have been were it not for the brave actions of law enforcement officers.

“Make no mistake about it, as you think about that day, things could have been much worse,” Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, another Democratic impeachment manager, said. “As one senator said, ‘They could have killed all of us.'”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.