supporters had been led to believe the Congress was assembled with Vice President Pence to carry out the final and most irreversible step of the conspiracy against them. In advance of the Rally, he told his supporters to prepare for a “Historic” and “wild” day: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”[1] In response to a supporter claiming that “[t]he calvary [sic] is coming, Mr. President!”, President Trump responded, “A great honor!”[2] And he made the target of his ire well-known: the Capitol and the officials meeting therein—including the Vice President, who he criticized publicly and privately as disloyal for failing to take unconstitutional measures to alter the election outcome.[3]
At the January 6th rally, the President’s private lawyer, Rudy Giuliani took the stage and called for “trial by combat.”[4] The President’s son, Donald Trump Jr., warned Republican congressmembers who did not support his father that “we’re coming for you.”[5] When President Trump took the stage, his own address was riddled with statements calculated to toss a match into the powder keg he had created. He enflamed the crowd by repeating his election grievances. He directed their ire towards Congress, including by calling out specific legislators: “And we got to get rid of the weak congresspeople, the ones that aren’t any good, the Liz Cheneys of the world, we got to get rid of them.” He told them to “fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” And finally, after riling up the crowd and giving them their marching orders, he aimed them at the Capitol: “After this, we’re going to walk down and I’ll be there with you. We’re going to walk down. We’re going to walk down any one you want, but I think right here.”[6]
As multiple lawmakers have observed, there can be no doubt that President Trump expressly and impliedly inflamed his supporters, pointed them straight at the Capitol, and encouraged them to take extraordinary, violent measures in response to a supposed evil conspiracy against them unfolding at the Capitol. As Senator Susan Collins explained: “The president does bear responsibility for working up the crowd and inciting this mob.”[7] Similarly, Senator Sasse has observed: “I think it’s obvious that the president’s conduct wasn’t merely reckless and destructive. It was a flagrant dereliction of his duty to uphold and defend the Constitution.”[8] And
- ↑ Dan Barry & Sheera Frenkel, ‘Be There. Will Be Wild!’: Trump All but Circled the Date, N. Y. Times (Jan. 6, 2021).
- ↑ Ed Pilkington, Incitement: a timeline of Trump's inflammatory rhetoric before the Capitol riot, The Guardian (Jan. 7, 2021).
- ↑ Donald J. Trump Tweet(@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Jan. 6, 2021, 1/6 1:00AM:00 AM) (online and searchable at http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/archive); See also Id. at (Jan. 6, 2021, 8:17 AM.).
- ↑ Natalie Colarossi, Bar Association Urged to Disqualify Giuliani Over ‘Trial by Combat’ Speech Before D.C. Riot, Newsweek (Jan. 9, 2021).
- ↑ Maggie Haberman, Trump Told Crowd, “You Will Never Take Back Our Country with Weakness,” N. Y. Times (Jan. 6, 2021).
- ↑ Speech: Donald Trump Holds a Political Rally on The Ellipse - January 6, 2021, Factbase Videos (Jan. 6, 2021), available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTK1lm1jk60&feature=emb_logo.
- ↑ Steve Mistler, Susan Collins: Trump 'Does Bear Responsibility' For Insurrection, Maine Public (Jan. 6, 2021).
- ↑ Steve Inskeep, Ben Sasse Rips Trump For Stoking Mob, Calls Josh Hawley's Objection 'Really Dumbass', NPR (Jan. 8, 2021).
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