02 Feb 2021 Lack of Evidence Renders Trump Impeachment II a Total Sham, by Deroy Murdock

Posted at 14:45h in Legal Reform, Project 21, Project 21 Commentary by

Former President Donald J. Trump faces his second impeachment trial next week.

Deroy Murdock

Deroy Murdock

The charge? “Incitement of insurrection,” specifically the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Trump’s remarks at the pre-revolt Save America Rally are highly incriminating — as these quotes from my relevant file show:

  • Describing his rage over November’s election irregularities, Trump pointed behind him and said, “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”
  • He then mocked tranquil demonstrations. “Please, show me where it says that protests are supposed to be polite and peaceful,” Trump told the roaring crowd.
  • “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for,” Trump insisted.
  • He continued: “There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives.”
  • Trump then instructed his followers to confront federal lawmakers. “Go to the Hill today,” he demanded. “Get up in the face of some congresspeople.”
  • “You get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them,” Trump directed his backers. “And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
  • He approved his voters’ doing physical damage: “Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence.”
  • As Trump whipped his audience into a mouth-foaming frenzy, he commanded them to inflict on Congress the same ruin that British troops wrought in the War of 1812.
  • “Burn it all down!” he implored MAGA Nation. “We riot, we protest and do whatever it takes…including burning it all down.”
  • Seeing the Capitol in flames, Trump imagined, would be “a once in a lifetime opportunity.” He observed, “That’s how forests grow.”
  • Trump predicted months of rebellion: “They’re not gonna let up, and they should not, and we should not.”
  • Finally, Trump shared his feelings about Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer of New York. “If we were in high school,” Trump said, “I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”

And with those urgings, Trump’s fan’s dutifully stormed Capitol Hill, smashed windows, breached the Senate chamber, sent gas-mask-wearing senators and congressmen scrambling into bunkers, and wreaked havoc that ultimately killed five people.

Oops!

Wrong file.

Excuse the mix-up. The quotes above are from my collection of violence-inducing, riot-inspiring, and chaos-excusing comments by Left-wing artists, journalists, and elected Democrats. Let me be clear: President Trump never uttered any of the aforementioned statements — on January 6 or any other time. In fact, the following individuals made these incendiary pronouncements, in order of citation.

Now, opening the correct file, here is what President Trump actually told the Save America Rally:

  • “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
  • “We’re going to the Capitol, and we’re going to try and give [wobbly Republicans] the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
  • “So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America.”

Trump urged his supporters to exercise their First Amendment rights placidly and convince sympathetic legislators to pursue their perfectly constitutional and lawful objections to Electoral College votes from states suspected of ballot irregularities. Much as occurred in 1877, congressional objectors proposed a 10-day emergency audit of these serious claims.

Trump knew this was the last chance to document these accusations. Alas, zealots brutally disrupted this process when they burst police barricades about 1:00 p.m., some 13 minutes before Trump finished talking. The Trump-loathing Washington Post now reports that this lethal assault was planned one to five days earlier.

Authorities now say that a suspect planted pipe bombs at the Democrat National Committee and the Republican National Committee at about 8:00 p.m. on January 5, some 17 hours before Trump’s alleged incitement. This underscores the notion that this entire atrocity pre-dated anything that Trump said, was widely coordinated, and — at least regarding the pipe bomber — jeopardized the headquarters of Trump’s party. Thus, this violence might have targeted a broader array of victims than first believed.

  • Also, during the pandemonium, Trump wrote via Twitter at 2:38 p.m.: “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
  • “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful,” he followed up at 3:13 p.m. USA Today’s timeline captured these messages that Twitter shoved down the memory hole, with Trump’s entire account. “No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”
  • “I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us,” Trump said via Twitter video at 4:17 p.m. “But you have to go home now. We have to have peace. We have to have law and order . . . I know how you feel. But go home and go home in peace.”

Trump might have restored order sooner by scolding the rioters, live from the White House, the moment he learned about the incursion. However, Trump faces trial not for stopping the bedlam too slowly, but for starting it — which he did not.

The impeachment article blames the “lawless action at the Capitol” on Trump’s statements, including: “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.'”

This standard political jargon is unrelated to force. Top Democrats routinely use this anodyne phrase.

  • Senator Schumer said June 8 that Democrats would “fight like hell” for police reform.
  • Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Sept. 23 that he and other Democrats would “fight like hell” against a Brett Kavanaugh-like replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
  • “I want to make sure we’re going to fight like hell by investing in America first,” Joe Biden said December 1.

In short, Trump did not employ violent rhetoric, unlike leading Leftists during 2020’s riots, among other occasions. Instead, Trump counseled peace, patriotism, and persuasion. The rioters’ mayhem was in motion long before Trump’s purported attack order.

Democrats have zero evidence against Trump. They should forfeit their prosecution and, instead, apologize to 331 million Americans for their asylum-grade psychological projection: They, not Trump, repeatedly excused and encouraged violence, not least during the blistering George Floyd madness, which killed 25 people, wounded some 700 law-enforcement officials, and converted $1 billion in public and private property into rubble and ash.

Democrats are as guilty of inciting and justifying violence as Donald J. Trump is not guilty.

Bucknell University’s Michael Malarkey contributed research to this opinion piece.

 

Deroy Murdock, a member of the Project 21 black leadership network, is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor, a contributing editor with National Review Online, and a senior fellow with the London Center for Policy Research. This first appeared at Newsmax.

New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.



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