U.S. Virgin Islands Representative Stacey Plaskett highlighted previous actions of Mr. Trump’s supporters who subsequently traveled to Washington on January 6, arguing that the former president was aware of the violence he incited with his rhetoric about the election.
“The truth and facts are overwhelming that our president, the president of the United States, has incited a crowd to storm the Capitol, the attempt to stop presidential election certification,” Plaskett said.
Like other executives before her, Plaskett stated that Mr Trump’s violence was predictable, given the former president’s behavior in the months, weeks, and days before the attack, and past incidents of violence from groups that attended the riots.
“The violence that happened on January 6, like the attack itself, didn’t just come to the fore,” she said.
Plaskett noted that by the time of the attack on January 6, Mr. Trump “had every reason to know that they were armed, that they were violent, and that they would actually fight. He knew who he was calling and what violence they were capable of.”
She also stressed that instead of blowing off his supporters, Mr. Trump “sparked the flame of violence and it worked.”
Targeting the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Plaskett highlighted the violent history of its members and played footage of the Sept. 29 presidential debate, in which Mr. Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and allow” when he was asked to condemn them. The Proud Boys then sold merchandise with the phrase.
She also recalled an October incident in Texas in which a caravan of Mr. Trump’s supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus with staff and volunteers in an attempt to take him off the road. Mr. Trump shared a video of the incident on Twitter, stating “I LOVE TEXAS!”
“For anyone who says that Donald Trump was unaware of the violence he incited, I ask you to consider that his supporters tried to drive a bus off the highway in the middle of the day to intimidate his opponent’s campaign workers, said Plaskett. he called the supporters who took part in the caravan “patriots.”
Plaskett said the Texas caravan organizer was involved in the Jan. 6 rally at the White House and was among those who breached the Capitol and headed for the Rotunda before urging the crowd to enter.
“These are the people President Trump cultivated, who stood by,” she said.
Plaskett said those involved in previous Trump campaign events were being brought back to help plan the January 6 rally, and that Mr. Trump himself played a part.
“Donald Trump has cultivated violence for months, praised it, and when he saw the violence his supporters were capable of, he directed it to his big, wild, historic event,” she said. He organized January 6 with the same people who had just organized a rally that resulted in substantial violence and made absolutely sure that these violent protesters would not just stay in place this time. He made sure that those violent people would literally march here. “To our steps, from the Ellipse to the Capitol, to stop the stealing. His cavalry. This was deliberate.”
Plaskett said Trump and his team followed public forums where reports on Jan. 6 hinted at violence in the Capitol, showing photos of Proud Boys members in the building wearing earpieces and using walkie-talkies to coordinate better with each other.
“Just what happened on January 6, that was their goal. And they said it out loud on sites that the Trump administration was actively monitoring,” she said.
She also quoted a Washington Post article about an FBI report warning of “war” in the Capitol, as well as a warning from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser for residents to stay out of the area and arrests made before the riots. .
‘This is all in public. All, ”said Plaskett. The truth is usually seen and rarely heard. The truth is the truth, whether denied or not, and the truth is that for months President Trump had called his supporters to march on a specific day at a specific time in specific places. to end certification. Leading up to the event, there were hundreds, hundreds of messages online showing his supporters took this as a call to attack the Capitol. “
Plaskett added that instead of trying to quell the violence despite these warnings, Mr Trump instead appeared before his supporters and urged them to “fight like hell or you won’t get land.”
“And that’s why this is different,” she said. “And that’s why he should be convicted and disqualified.”