House Democrats’ plan to pin the Jan. 6 melee on 74-year-old former President Donald Trump leaps to unwarranted conclusions, accusing the former president of “incitement of insurrection.” While no one denies the utter chaos created by a small fraction of outlaws attending Trump’s Jan. 6 speech with about one million attending, House managers are hard-pressed to find evidence that Trump encouraged anyone in his audience to break the law. When you listen to House Democrats, you’d think they had evidence that Trump orchestrated the storming of Capitol and vandalism of government property. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Corez (D-N.Y.) mirrors sentiments of House Democrats when she said she “feared for her life,” blaming the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and mob scene on Trump. Tragic as the events were, Trump delivered a speech in which he encouraged his audience to protest peacefully.
Democrat House managers led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) overstate what happened Jan. 6, calling it an affront on American democracy. “Since the dawn of the Republic, no enemy—foreign or domestic—had ever obstructed Congress’s counting of the votes,” said House impeachment managers. Well, if a riot happened at the Capitol on the day when Electoral College votes were tallied, it’s unprecedented but not an organized “insurrection,” “revolt” or “coup d’etat. In charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection,” Democrats raise the conviction bar so high that they made their work impossible. Had they charged Trump with “incitement of a riot,” maybe they could have convinced a few more Republicans. But since Democrats crafted their article of impeachment to read “incitement of insurrection” they have to live with the results, proving an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government.
It’s utterly preposterous that the misanthropes, misfits and losers that stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 were armed with the weapons needed to overthrow the U.S. government. While a few pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails were found, planted the night before Trump delivered his speech, the unruly mob storming the Capitol were armed with cell phones to take selfies, not shoot up the place. “No president had ever refused to accept an election results or defied the lawful process for resolving electoral disputes. Until President Trump,” said House managers. When Trump won the Nov. 4, 2016 presidential election, the FBI was well into an illegal counterintelligence investigation AKA Crossfire Hurricane, accusing Trump of colluding with Russia. When Democrats talk about no president “refused to accept election results,” they’re talking about what Democrats did to Trump since 2016.
Declassified reports from the Department of Justice and FBI prove that Democrats sought to impeach Trump from the day he took office Jan. 20, 2017. Democrats talk about Trump not accepting the 2020 election results but Democrats didn’t accept the results on the Nov. 4, 2016 presidential election. Framing Trump with bogus charges from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA “the Steele dossier,” forces inside the Obama White House, Justice Department, FBI, CIA and National Security Agency [NSA} all conspired to oust Trump from office. Trump didn’t accept the 2020 election results because Democrats used universal mail-in ballots, changing state election rules for collecting, counting and tallying votes. Democrats didn’t accept the Trump’s election for one day, vowing to remove him from office.
Democrats have tortured the language in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5, of Congress’s impeachment authority, to go ahead with an impeachment trial when Trump finished his term Jan. 20. “By its plain and categorical language, the Constitution vests the Senate with full jurisdiction to hear any valid impeachment case brought by the House for high crimes and misdemeanors . . “ impeachment managers said, jamming a square peg in a round hole. Regardless of the constitutionality of impeachment, the House charged Trump with “incitement of insurrection.” No one can say Trump encouraged or orchestrated the Jan. 6 riot and mob scene that stormed the Capitol. Expressing his misgivings to the crowd about the 2020 election results cannot, in the wildest legal arguments, be used as “incitement of insurrection.” Trump’s speech was neither incitement nor insurrection.
Whatever the Constitutional arguments at Trump Feb. 9 trial, Democrats have to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump incited a crowd to storm and vandalize the Capitol Jan. 6. It’s not enough that members of Congress “feared for their lives,” or had property defiled or stolen from their offices. Delivering a fiery speech is entirely protected by Trump’s First Amendment rights. When the Obama ordered the CIA and FBI to spy on Trump before-and-after the 2016 presidential election, he violated Trump’s civil liberties and Constitutional rights. Unless Democrats can show that Trump instructed or ordered his audience to storm the Capitol and vandalize property, the responsibility for the lawlessness lies with the rioters, not with Trump. Using Article 1 authority to take revenge on Trump will turn out the same way for Democrats as last time, acquitting Trump.
