The Senate began its historic second indictment on Tuesday on charges that it incited the deadly uprising at the Capitol on January 6.
Raskin, the Democratic congressman leading the prosecution, told the assembled senators – who serve as jurors – that Trump was responsible for the assault on the Capitol.
“This can not be the future of America,” Raskin said. “We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing violence against our government.”
Video transcription
ADAM RASKIN: This trial is indeed personal to every senator, to every member of the House, every manager, all our staff, the Capitol Police, the Washington Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, interviewers, the print journalists and TV people. who was here, and all our families and friends. My youngest daughter, Tabitha, was with me there on Wednesday, January 6th. It was the day after we buried her brother, our son Tommy, the saddest day of our lives. They wanted to be with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family.
And I told them I had to go back to work because we were counting election votes that day on January 6th. It was our constitutional duty. And I rather invited them to come with me to witness this historic event, the peaceful transfer of power in America.
And they said they heard President Trump calling on his followers to come to Washington to protest. And they asked me directly, would it be safe? Would it be safe? And I told them it had to be safe, of course. This is the Capitol.
And when they were finally rescued an hour later by Capitol officers and we were together, I hugged them and I apologized. And I told my daughter Tabitha – I told her how sorry I was, and I promised her that it would not be the next time she came to the Capitol with me again. And you know what she said? She said: Dad, I do not want to come back to the Capitol.
Of all the horrible, cruel things I saw that day and which I heard, that one hit me the hardest, and watching someone use an American flagpole, with the flag on it, around one of our police officers. to point and stab officers mercilessly, mercilessly. Tortured by a pole with a flag on it that he defends with his life.
People died that day. Officers sustained head injuries and brain damage. People’s eyes are closed. An officer had a heart attack. An officer lost three fingers that day. Two officers took their own lives.
Senators, this can not be our future. This cannot be the future of America. We cannot have presidents who incite and mobilize mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refuse to accept the will of the people under the Constitution of the United States.