Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., asked a question on Feb. 12 to the House impeachment managers, who are arguing that the Senate should convict former President Donald Trump on the charge that he incited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Merkley asked, “If a president spins a big lie to anger Americans, and stokes the fury by repeating the lie at event after event, and invites violent groups to D.C. on the day and hour necessary to interrupt the Electoral College count, and does nothing to stop those groups from advancing on the capital, and fails to summon the National Guard to protect the capital, and then expresses his pleasure and delight that the capital was under attack, is the president innocent of inciting an insurrection because in a speech he says be peaceful?”
House manager Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, responded, saying that “the president’s message in that January six speech was incendiary. So in the entire speech, which was roughly 1100 words, he used the word peaceful once. And using the word peaceful was the only suggestion of nonviolence.”
Castro spoke during the fourth day in the Senate impeachment trial against Trump. Trump was impeached by the House in January, while he was still in office.
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