Lawyers for Donald Trump blasted what they say is the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” of Democrats as they made their closing argument ahead of the start of a Senate trial on Tuesday to determine if the former president should be convicted of inciting an insurrection.
The Democratic-led House voted last month to impeach Trump a historic second time on a single article of impeachment, with 10 Republicans also voting in favor. Trump has called the impeachment a “hoax,” and his new legal team has argued that an impeachment against a president who is out of office is unconstitutional. Democrats and Republicans each hold 50 seats in the chamber.
“One might have been excused for thinking that the Democrats’ fevered hatred for Citizen Trump and their ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ would have broken by now, seeing as he is no longer the President, and yet for the second time in just over a year the United States Senate is preparing to sit as a Court of Impeachment, but this time over a private citizen who is a former President,” Trump’s lawyers said on Monday. “In this Country, the Constitution — not a political party and not politicians — reigns supreme. But through this latest Article of Impeachment now before the Senate, Democrat politicians seek to carve out a mechanism by which they can silence a political opponent and a minority party. The Senate must summarily reject this brazen political act.”
House Democrats filed a lengthy impeachment brief last Tuesday arguing that Trump had “singular responsibility” for the storming of the United States Capitol and that the Senate should convict him for “incitement of insurrection against the Republic he swore to protect.”
“On January 6, 2021, with Vice President Michael Pence presiding, Congress assembled to perform one of its most solemn constitutional responsibilities: the counting of electoral votes for President of the United States. This ritual has marked the peaceful transfer of power in the United States for centuries. Since the dawn of the Republic, no enemy — foreign or domestic — had ever obstructed Congress’s counting of the votes. No President had ever refused to accept an election result or defied the lawful processes for resolving electoral disputes. Until President Trump,” the Democrats said. “In a grievous betrayal of his Oath of Office, President Trump incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol during the Joint Session, thus impeding Congress’s confirmation of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as the winner of the presidential election.”
Trump spent weeks claiming the presidential election was “rigged” or “stolen” from him by Biden and Democrats. The article of impeachment claimed that Trump “engaged in high Crimes and Misdemeanors by inciting violence against the Government of the United States” and “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.” The article pointed to a speech he delivered to a crowd the day of the Capitol riot, specifically quoting him telling his supporters that “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
“The intellectual dishonesty and factual vacuity put forth by the House Managers in their trial memorandum only serve to further punctuate the point that this impeachment proceeding was never about seeking justice,” Trump’s legal team argued on Monday. “Instead, this was only ever a selfish attempt by Democratic leadership in the House to prey upon the feelings of horror and confusion that fell upon all Americans across the entire political spectrum upon seeing the destruction at the Capitol on January 6 by a few hundred people. Instead of acting to heal the nation, or at the very least focusing on prosecuting the lawbreakers who stormed the Capitol, the Speaker of the House and her allies have tried to callously harness the chaos of the moment for their own political gain.”
Trump responded to the Democratic pursuit of impeachment in the days following the Capitol riots.
“As far as this is concerned, we want no violence, never violence. We want absolutely no violence. And on the impeachment, it’s really a continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said the following week. “This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and you’re doing it. And it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing.”
The Democratic impeachment brief quotes members of the Capitol mob as yelling “President Trump sent us,” “Hang Mike Pence,” and “Traitor, traitor, traitor.” Biden defeated Trump, 306-232, in the Electoral College, and the certification of electoral votes by Congress was delayed by the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 but finished in the early hours of the following morning.
Trump’s lawyers argued on Monday that “the House Managers’ suggestion that President Trump did not act swiftly enough to quell the violence is absolutely not true” and, as evidence, pointed to tweets by Trump that day as the riot unfolded from his now-suspended account.
“Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” Trump tweeted at 2:38 p.m. on Jan. 6 as the rioters clashed with police and smashed windows to force their way into the Capitol. “They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”
Trump also put out a video statement, saying: “I know your pain. I know you’re hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us.” But he added, “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home at peace.”
Trump’s legal team added that “he and the White House further took immediate steps to coordinate with authorities to provide whatever was necessary to counteract the rioters” and argued that “there are complex procedural elements involved in quelling a riot at the Capitol and on the mall — DC police, Capitol Police, National Guard, etc.” The lawyers contended that “there was a flurry of activity inside the White House working to mobilize assets” and that “there is no legitimate proof, nor can there ever be, that President Trump was ‘delighted’ by the events at the Capitol” because “he, like the rest of the Country, was horrified at the violence.”
