The images of Trump's mob are unforgettable
Opinion by Jennifer Rubin
I felt sick to my stomach watching the House managers’ minute-by-minute presentation Wednesday of insurrectionists entering the Capitol, assaulting police officers, terrorizing lawmakers and staff. The near-miss incidents in which lawmakers and staff came within seconds of confrontation with the mob provided riveting viewing. Only the most heartless senators could fail to appreciate that “but for the grace of God,” they would have been beaten or killed. The visuals were all the more powerful because the people in peril were sitting as jurors in the trial of the disgraced former president who incited the mob.
Further depressing and incensing was the knowledge that most Republican senators, including those whose lives were saved during the evacuation of the Senate chamber (impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said they came within just 58 steps of the mob), have been telling us — and more importantly, the mob’s victims — to “move on.” It defies belief that they are alive because of the courage of police, but haven’t the courage themselves to convict the person who put a target on their backs.
Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) also took us through the former president’s actions during the siege, including the unanswered pleas to demand that his supporters evacuate and his refusal to condemn the terrorists. Republicans trying to acquit on the grounds that members of the mob went to the Capitol on their own (patently false as that may be) have no explanation for the commander in chief’s abdication of his responsibility to defend the government, including his own vice president.
First, one could viscerally sense the barbarity of the mob. The hellish violence, the taunts and the determination to find and kill both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Vice President Mike Pence should appall any decent human. But not the former president. In a video to the mob, he told them, “We love you.” There is no more vivid example of the pathology of the ex-president who embraces anyone who will “fight” for him. By placing Pence center stage in the trial, House managers made clear just how dangerous it was for the ex-president to incite a mob willing to kill Pence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/you-will-never-forget-images-trumps-mob/
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