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Delegate Stacey Plaskett from the US Virgin Islands highlighted the earlier actions of Mr. Trump’s supporters who then traveled to Washington on January 6, saying the former president was aware of the violence he was instigating with his rhetoric on the election.
“The truth and the facts are overwhelming that our president, the President of the United States, instigated a mob to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of a presidential election,” Plaskett said.
Like other leaders before her, Plaskett said the violence perpetrated by Mr. Trump was predictable given the former president’s conduct in the months, weeks and days leading up to the assault and previous incidents of group violence. who witnessed the riots.
“The violence that occurred on January 6, like the attack itself, did not just happen,” she said.
Plaskett noted that at the time of the Jan.6 assault, Mr. Trump “had every reason to know that they were armed, that they were violent, and that they were going to fight. He knew who he was calling and violence of which they were capable. “
She also pointed out that instead of calling out to his supporters, Mr. Trump “stoked the flame of violence and it worked.”
Focusing on the Proud Boys, a far-right group, Plaskett highlighted the stories of violence among its members and released footage of the September 29 presidential debate, in which Mr. Trump told the Proud Boys to ” take a step back and stand by “when asked to condemn them. The Proud Boys then sold merchandise bearing this phrase.
She also recalled an incident in October in Texas in which a trailer of Mr. Trump supporters surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus filled with employees and volunteers in an attempt to get him off the road. Mr Trump shared a video of the incident on Twitter, stating “I LOVE TEXAS!”
“For anyone who says Donald Trump didn’t know the violence he was instigating, 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 agents. “Plaskett said, adding he called the supporters who took part in the caravan” patriots. “
Plaskett said the organizer of the Texas trailer was involved in the Jan.6 rally near the White House and was among those who violated the Capitol, heading for the rotunda before urging the crowd to enter.
“These are the people that President Trump cultivated, who stood next to it,” she said.
Plaskett said those involved in previous events of the Trump campaign were brought back to help plan the January 6 rally, and that Mr. Trump himself had played a role.
“Donald Trump, for many months, cultivated violence, praised it, and then when he saw the violence of which his supporters were capable, he channeled it into his great historic and savage event,” a- she declared. “He organized on January 6 with the same people who had just organized a rally that resulted in substantial violence and made sure that this time around those violent protesters would not just stay put. He made sure that these violent people would literally walk here, at our feet, from the Ellipse to the Capitol, to stop the theft. His cavalry. It was deliberate. “
Plaskett said Mr. Trump and his team were monitoring public forums where articles alluded to the violence on the U.S. Capitol on Jan.6, and that she had shown photos of Proud Boys members inside the building wearing headphones and using walkie-talkies to better coordinate with each other.
“The exact thing that happened on January 6 was their goal. And they said it out loud on sites that the Trump administration was actively monitoring,” she said.
She also cited a Washington Post article on an FBI report warning of “war” on Capitol Hill, as well as a warning from DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, asking residents to stay away from the area. and arrests made before the riots.
“This is all in public view. All of it,” Plaskett said. “The truth is generally seen and rarely heard. The truth is the truth whether it is denied or not, and the truth is that President Trump had spent months calling his supporters to a march on a specific day at a specific time. in specific places to stop certification. And before the event, there were hundreds, hundreds of posts online showing that his supporters saw this as a call to arms to attack the Capitol. “
Plaskett added that rather than seek to quell violence in the face of these warnings, Mr. Trump instead appeared in front of his supporters and urged them to “fight like hell or you are not going to have a country.”
“And that’s why it’s different,” she said. “And that is why he must be condemned and disqualified.”
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