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Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was roundly mocked Thursday for arguing that former President Donald Trump couldn’t have incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol because it was planned days before it took place.
“How do you incite a riot that was already going to happen?†he asked, noting that the FBI was aware of the potential threat before Jan. 6, that pipe bombs were placed in Washington the night before and that Capitol Police asked before the event for the National Guard to be on standby.
Those elements are all true, and they happened following a months-long disinformation campaign spearheaded by Trump to convince voters that the 2020 election had been rigged. His supporters ― among them extremists, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists ― congregated Jan. 6 in Washington after Trump explicitly asked them, over the course of several weeks, to be there. He and his allies then urged them to march on the Capitol and “stop the steal.â€
Trump was impeached by the House on Jan. 13 on a charge of incitement to insurrection. Democrats are seeking to convict him in the Senate trial and bar him from holding future office. In the third day of trial proceedings Thursday, House impeachment managers argued Trump could further incite violence if he’s allowed to run again.
Jordan’s tweet actually ties in with arguments put forth by House impeachment managers that Trump’s effort to incite the mob was premeditated and planned.
Hard to overstate how monumentally dumb this argument is.
1) Trump told them to “preplan” Jan 6 for weeks and weeks. He incited it on the day *and* in the weeks leading up to it.
2) Many rioters who “preplanned” said in their own words that Trump had told them to do it. https://t.co/t0f9riFKwB
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 11, 2021
This is not as persuasive as you think at getting us to believe that Trump was trying to *avoid* violence when he told the crowd to go to the Capitol. https://t.co/VOtFalxIa2
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) February 11, 2021
You tweet about it dozens of times for weeks and then tell the people that you’re going with them to the Capitol when you’re really going back to the White House to watch
them attack Congress on TV? https://t.co/x4PFTeIgJY— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) February 11, 2021
The House Managers have made an effective case that the origins of the attack were not on the day itself, but Trump’s months-long Big Lie and call to fight, and summoning his supporters to DC on Jan 6th.
Can anyone seriously believe the attack would have occurred without Trump? https://t.co/HtqK304bdA— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) February 11, 2021
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