Let's Watch These Badass Democrats Finish The Job. Impeachment Liveblog, Day Three!

Can Stacey Plaskett just be president at some point in the future? Thx.

It's day three of the second Trump impeachment trial! Today, the Democratic House managers will finish their business, and if today is anything like yesterday, it will be stunning and Fox News will try to ignore it/and or invent conspiracy theories about how the Democrats are making it all up.

Shall we view it together while we liveblog? Yes, we shall.

Here is your video for to watch the proceedings:

12: 03:And here we go. We are hearing they are PROBABLY not going to use all their allotted time, just like they didn't yesterday. The chaplain has said the prayer for justice, and the Republicans have ignored it. Jamie Raskin introduces Rep. Diana DeGette, who will show the evidence that Trump's terrorists very much believed they were just following orders, from Trump.

12: 06:DEGETTE: Statements from the terrorists show they did it for Trump, because he told them to, because they said so out loud. They bragged about it on social media, and they tagged him in their tweets. They didn't think they'd be punished, because they thought he'd protect them.

12: 08:DeGette notes that the crowd chanted "Stop the steal," and plays video from the crowd's perspective of them also screaming "Fight for Trump!"

12: 10:DeGette also notes that as Trump was speaking, people on Parler started saying "civil war" A LOT.

Meanwhile, terrorists at the Capitol were saying things like "Our president wants us here" and "We wait and take orders from our president." They told Capitol Police they shouldn't even be fighting back because they were just following Trump's orders.

"Does he not realize President Trump called us to siege the place?" asked a terrorist, responding to Joe Biden calling on them to stop the attack.

DeGette plays video of alt-right moron troll Baked Alaska, who was part of the siege, saying, "Let's call Trump. He'll be happy. We're fighting for Trump."

Oh yes, and then there was Jacob Chansley AKA QAnon Shaman saying Trump was only telling them to go home later on because "we won the fucking day."

12: 18:And then there's Texas real estate insurrectionist Jenna Ryan, who has said many times that Trump had "requested" they come to DC to do this. Ryan now says she regrets it all, that she "bought into a lie" told to her by Trump.

12: 21:Proud Boy Daniel Goodwyn, using Trump's "Stand back and stand by" order from the debate, telling people to await orders from Trump. DeGette notes that Goodwyn loves Trump so very muchly that Goodwyn used Trump as his profile pic.

12: 25:Just quote after quote from insurrectionists, in court and in court filings and in postings on the intrawebs, saying Trump told them to do it. Samuel Fisher, "Trump just needs to fire the bat signal ... deputize patriots ... and then the pain comes." The lawyer for Dominic Pezzola, noted Proud Boy, speaking for his client saying "He invited us down" and asking "Who lit the fuse?"

12: 27:Video of insurrectionist outside the Capitol screaming "We were invited! We were invited here! We were invited by the president of the United States!"

And DeGette's presentation is over.

12: 31:RASKIN: January 6 was the culmination of Trump's actions, not an aberration. It's simply the most violent and deadly so far . On Trump's watch, white supremacists and other extremist groups spread like wildfire. According to his own DHS, these groups were the greatest terror threat to America.

Raskin playing clips of Trump inciting violence all the way back to 2015. Campaign rallies in 2015. His deplorable shitbag followers attacking people, especially Black people, at his rallies. Trump literally telling his followers to "knock the crap out of" people.

He's even got video of Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, then a congressional candidate, assaulting that reporter, and Trump defending him for it.

Hey, we wonder if he might mention that time Trump defended the Charlottesville Nazis who screamed "Jews will not replace us!" That was way back in 2017. Oh yeah, there it is. He's got video of the chant and everything. Those Nazis, some of whom also attacked the Capitol, killed an innocent woman named Heather Heyer that day. Trump's been inciting and encouraging these garbage humans for years now.

12: 39:RASKIN: Let's talk about MIchigan last year! Remember when Trump attacked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for trying to protect Michigan from coronavirus, just attacked her repeatedly, and Trump's incitement led to people trying to literally kidnap her? Remember when these same people stormed the Michigan state capitol multiple times, with weapons and nooses, in a preview of what would happen mere months later to the nation's Capitol? Crazy, they look just like the MAGA terrorists from January 6!

In response, Trump gave aid and comfort to those who attacked the capitol in Michigan and attacked Whitmer some more.

12: 51:Raskin is really spending a lot of time on Michigan, showing how Trump incited people against Whitmer over coronavirus restrictions, then when the plot was revealed, he took credit for saving her from that, while also saying maybe the kidnap/assassination plot was no big deal. He also used his inciting attacks on Whitmer to pivot right to how Whitmer couldn't be trusted to run a fair election, AKA his Big Lie that any election result where he wasn't the winner was fraudulent.

He played a clip from a rally in October where Trump absolutely reveled in the way he was able to incite his mob. He knew what he was doing then, and on January 6.

12: 54:RASKIN: Is there anybody in here who believes if Trump got in the Oval again, he wouldn't incite more violence? Would you bet your family's safety on that? And he finishes.

Next up, Ted Lieu with Trump's lack of remorse.

12: 57:It's been noted several times, but it's important that at no point on Insurrection Day did Trump condemn the violence. Instead he told his terrorists he loved them and that they were very special. He tweeted "Remember this day forever." He didn't mean it like "Never forget" after 9/11.

Lieu says the next day, Trump was "eerily silent." Finally, at 7: 01 p.m., Trump released a recorded video that kinda condemned the violence, sorta. But he kept lying in that video, saying he deployed the National Guard immediately. He did not do that immediately, and Mike Pence actually had to give the order. Trump was ignoring pleas for the National Guard.

1: 00:LIEU: In that video, Trump didn't tell his supporters not to do terrorism for him anymore. He said "our incredible journey is only just beginning." Because his sleeper cells are just gettin' started, y'all!

1: 02:  Here is how the CRAZY NEWSMAX ALL CAPS GUY is livetweeting today's PRESENTATION, because of how CRAZY NEWSMAX GUY is WELL ADJUSTED and VERY SMART.

@Bencjacobs Here's how a Newsmax anchor is covering Raskin's presentation right now, by the way. https: //t.co/CfA0xRaJBT

— Matt Ford (@Matt Ford) 1613065582.0 

1: 09:Lieu notes that Trump to this day has not stopped telling his Big Lie that incited the attack, or admitted that he lost the election. Now playing video of GOP governors condemning Trump's Big Lie, and his incitement of the attack. Of course, it's GOP governors like Larry Hogan and Charlie Baker and Mike DeWine, AKA the handful of GOP governors who can still arguably be called patriots.

1: 10:Former SecDef James Mattis: "Today's violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump."

Former chief of staff John Kelly: The Capitol attack "was a direct result of him poisoning the minds of people with the lies and the fraud."

Lieu also playing clips from former White House officials like Alyssa Farah and Mick Mulvaney, saying the same damn thing. Like this is even in fucking question.

LIEU: Most telling was the "flood of resignations" after the attack Trump incited.

Lieu even reads a long quote from former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, AKA MITCH MCCONNELL LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE YOU HEAR ABOUT YOUR WIFE?

1: 17:LIEU: I'm not afraid of Trump running in four years. I'm afraid he's going to run in four years and lose . At which point he will incite another domestic terrorist attack, probably.

1: 18:And now he's finally playing clips of Liz Cheney and the other Republicans who voted for impeachment. You know, in case there's a Republican senator who has as much of a soul as ... * checks notes * ... Liz Cheney.

Yep, that's how low the bar is now!

1: 20:Now Diana DeGette will come back and share the extremists' plans for attacking the inauguration, having been emboldened by Trump's incitement of the Capitol attack.

1: 23:DeGette running through how the exact same groups who attacked the Capitol started planning for the inaugural, goosed by Trump saying their journey was just beginning, and our FBI and DHS was paying attention. We are sure some GOP senators think those don't count because the attacks were thwarted.

1: 25:DeGette shows a joint intel bulletin saying the insurrectionists were motivated to attack the inauguration by their shared belief in (obviously we are paraphrasing) Trump's Big Lie about a stolen election. Also citing users on Parler promising they were coming back to attack the inauguration with weapons. One on Gab said, "I'd like to come to this, but want to know, does our president want us there? Awaiting instructions."

Couy Griffin, head of Cowboys for Trump and a New Mexico county commissioner who participated in the January 6 coup attempt, is shown in a video promising blood running out of the Capitol, kinda almost shaking his head like well if we have to do that, we have to do that.

DeGette also shows Trump retweeting Couy Griffin in May 2020, saying "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat."

1: 31:Really, all of this just boils down to the legal question known as the "but-for" test. Would the Capitol attack have happened, would any of these other attacks have happened, would these people have been planning on attacking the inauguration, would there still have to be troops at the Capitol right now , but for Trump's incitement?

If you think the answer to that is "yes," you are a lying Ted Cruz-Josh Hawley hybrid, and you are very weird looking and gross.

1: 36:DeGette showing far-right batshit types and how excited they were after the Capitol attack, viewing it as the first really successful terrorist attack pulled off by these assholes.

She showed far-right white nationalist Nick Fuentes and others bragging, and used this quote from Jared Holt, an expert at tracking these fuckers. "By all measurable effects, this was for far-right extremists one of the most successful attacks that they've ever launched. This will be lionized and propagandized on likely for the next decade." Also, "They're talking about this as the first stab in a greater revolution."

DeGette now playing a clip of Susan Bro, Heather Heyer's mom, warning that if we just Kum Ba Yah and try to put all this behind us, nothing will be fixed. You hear that, REPUBLICANS? And now things are even worse than when Charlottesville happened.

Now time for David Cicilline, to talk about the harm done to our democracy and democratic processes.

1: 45:Cicilline showing how the line of presidential succession was in that building, and the terrorists were specifically looking to assassinate two of them. But they were also looking for any member of Congress they could find, so Grassley wasn't safe either.

They wanted to trap them in the tunnels below the Capitol complex. And Trump sent them there.

1: 50:Cicilline very smartly playing clips of congressmen, many of them Republicans, talking about their own experiences that day, how scared they were, how furious they were, how they called their families to tell them goodbye. You know, in case any of these GOP senators conveniently forgot.

1: 54:And now playing clips of congressional staffers sharing their own harrowing accounts of that day. You know, GOP senators, YOUR staffers.

1: 57:Cicilline notes that for many Black and brown staffers, both for congressmen and senators and people who work to make the Capitol run, the day was even more painful, because of all the confederate flags and the racial slurs. A janitor recalled having to clean up feces off the wall, blood from somebody who died. "I felt degraded," he said.

1: 59:Cicilline reminds everyone in the room that they're all survivors. Three officers died in the attack, two from the Capitol police, one from DC Metro police. Officers came away with concussions, lung injuries, and other injuries like the officer who lost the tip of their index finger. One lost an eye. One was stabbed with a metal fence stake. At least 81 Capitol Police injured, around 65 Metro Police.

2: 03:Clips of terrorists assaulting officers, berating them, screaming "1776, Bitch!" Calling them traitors. "So much for backing the blue," says Cicilline.

"To whom do [the rioters] think they owe their loyalty to?" asks Cicilline. Trump, obviously. Because Trump has taught them that Trump = America. Because Trump literally believes that.

2: 06:Cicilline notes that four insurrectionists also died. And they died because they were brainwashed by Trump into believing they were acting as patriots.

2: 10:Dispatch from Talking Points Memo's liveblog (don't go there, they aren't even allowed to type "boner" five times in a row for no reason like "BONER BONER BONER BONER BONER," what a snoozer, how can they even call themselves a "news" website):

As the impeachment trial against Donald Trump proceeded Thursday, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) "had a blank map of Asia on his desk and was writing on it like he was filling in the names of the countries," according to a Capitol Hill pool report.

Good senatoring, dipshit.

Breaktime!

2: 44:This has been a long 10-minute break! Meanwhile, breaking news, and it is Dildo Lube Boat Hits Iceberg. 

2: 46:Oh here is a fun segment! (We are back.)

Joaquin Castro on the damage Trump's terrorist attack did to our national security and our standing in the world.

For one thing, the Capitol "houses some of our most sensitive information." (Remember that time Matt Gaetz threw a pizza party in a House SCIF during the last impeachment?)

And then of course, there's Riley June Williams, who allegedly wanted to sell the Pelosi laptop/hard drive she stole to Russian intelligence.

And the crowd was full of violent extremists and people on the FBI watch list, and they stole documents from Mitch McConnell's desk, and they went through people's desks. Castro says Trump KNEW the risks of people breaching the Capitol. He didn't care.

2: 50:Jim Inhofe says House managers are "losing credibility the longer they talk." Reminder: This is a man who thinks he disproved global warming when he carried a snowball onto the Senate floor. He's a real expert, on "credibility."

2: 53:Castro notes that the Capitol attack gave our adversaries so much steam. China was like "LOL and you wanna talk about OUR anti-democratic crackdowns? Sure buddy." Chinese media trolled Nancy Pelosi by creating a false equivalency between Hong Kong people protesting for democracy and Trump's terrorists trying to do a coup for him.

Oh yeah baby, Castro is saying CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY a lot, how you like that, Republicans?

The Russian government said America had lost all its ability to uphold the idea of democracy or push it on others. Iran made fun of "their democracy and human rights" and added "These values are being mocked by the whole world. Even their friends are laughing at them."

2: 57:And then there were our actual allies, like Justin Trudeau, who correctly nailed Trump for inciting the riot. The German foreign minister also tried to help us support our fledgling democracy, encouraging us to hold those who attacked the Capitol accountable, as well as the leader of their militia.

Anyway, Castro's point is that we can't even pretend to be some kind of beacon of democracy if we fail to hold the shitmouthed despot accountable for ordering a terrorist attack on our own government.

3: 04:And now Joe Neguse comes back, says they are getting close to finishing, but wants to address Trump's dumb defense that he can't be held accountable because "First Amendment."

Let's unpack that!

3: 06:Number one, Neguse says, they aren't charging Trump with giving a bad speech. That ain't it, pal. Trump's lawyers, Neguse says, would have you believe this is all happening because some dude at a rally (Trump) said some things people don't like. Nope.

Trump spent months, Neguse restates, spreading his Big Lie, which is square one of the incitement that he pushed the button on the morning of January 6.

3: 12:Neguse notes that Trump's lawyers aren't saying it's OK to incite mob violence. They're just pretending something entirely different happened. Of course, all the senators in that room witnessed what actually did happen, which is that Trump incited the attack.

Neguse hands to Raskin the law teacher to talk about all the legal flaws of Trump's argument.

3: 16:Raskin notes that Trump swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and our institutions and our people. What if a president advocated for totalitarianism? What if they told states to secede? What if they swore an oath to a foreign leader? (OUT LOUD IN PUBLIC he means.) Well, if Trump had done that (OUT LOUD in public he means) as president, he could certainly be impeached for violating his oath! Because the position of president is different.

3: 19:Raskin cites Scalia writing about public officials, saying he got it exactly right . Scalia said, "you can't ride with the cops, but root for the robbers." So sorry, Trump, too bad, so sad, you literally sent the robbers to the Capitol, you violated your oath, GTFO forever.

3: 21:Raskin says even if Trump had been a private citizen, this is a "classic case" of incitement.

3: 25:Raskin notes that we wouldn't even HAVE a First Amendment if we didn't have a Constitution and a peaceful transfer of power and the damn rule of law. In other words, back the fuck off, Trump hack lawyers who got hired five minutes ago and have been tripping over their own dicks ever since.

3: 27:RASKIN; Trump ignored the Judicial Branch, then ran over the Legislative Branch with a mob.

So again, file your "free speech" argument up your ass, losers.

3: 29:Raskin quotes Voltaire to sum up what Trump did: "Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

Time for Ted Lieu again! He will talk about why Trump's lawyers are full of shit when they whine about "due process."

3: 32:LIEU: I'm a former prosecutor. When you literally watch somebody commit a crime with your face, you don't have to spend a million months investigating before you bring charges. We literally watched Trump do this.

3: 35:Lieu concludes by saying Trump is getting all the due process he deserves in the Senate trial right here right now, dickbags.

Jamie Raskin takes over to drive home the point that if Trump did what all the evidence shows he did, then clearly he did a high crime and misdemeanor, perhaps the gravest one possible. "I hope we all agree today that if a president does incite a violent insurrection against the government, he can be impeached for it."

3: 39:RASKIN: If inciting an attack against America isn't impeachable, what is? The only question here is did we prove that Trump did it? And yeah, we fuckin' did, Jesus Christ.

3: 41:Neguse coming back to show us, in case anybody is confused, how the House proved its case.

3: 42:Question one: Was it FORESEEABLE that if Trump gave the order that day, it would get violent? Yes, of course, says Neguse. He knew that crowd was inflamed, armed, ready for violence. "It was an explosive situation, and he knew it." He had been pushing his Big Lie that inflamed them for months, and they were brainwashed to believe an election really had been stolen from their Dear Leader god man loser baby. "He was willing to just about anything to prevent the peaceful transfer of power."

And he did, attacking elected officials and the Justice Department, and on January 6, his vice president, "openly and savagely."

3: 49:Neguse just going back over all the times Trump has encouraged, reveled in, the violence he's incited his followers to commit, and then attacked the victims afterward, a la Look What U Made Me Do.

3: 53:Neguse: Question two: Did he ENCOURAGE the violence? Yes duh no shit, Jesus Christ, NEXT.

3: 57:Neguse reminds of very important quote from Trump's hate speech on January 6: "When you catch somebody in a fraud, you're allowed to go by very different rules." That dogwhistle couldn't have been louder.

4: 01:Last question: Did Trump act WILLFULLY?

He stood in front of an armed 'n' ready crowd and aimed them at the Capitol, told them to "fight like hell," and they did. And the rest of the day, he sat back and watched the fire he set burn. People were dying, and he wouldn't call in the National Guard. At 4: 17 p.m. he continued pushing his Big Lie that the election was stolen. At 6:01 p.m. he sided with the terrorists and said "these are the things that happen when a secret landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away."

Look what U made me do, indeed.

4: 06:Neguse reemphasizing that after 2: 00 p.m., when Mike Pence was hiding in the Capitol, surrounded by a crowd that had set up gallows and was screaming "Hang Mike Pence!" Trump continued to attack Pence on Twitter. Yeah, we'd say he acted willfully.

4: 09:And Neguse closes. Jamie Raskin is here to close. We're hearing that about 15 GOP senators are just mysteriously not there today, or at least for part of today. Don't know what that means and won't wildly speculate.

Raskin says he's not going to "retraumatize" us by showing the evidence again.

He is talking about high-minded Constitution things about how the president is not Congress's real dad, Congress is Congress's real dad.

4: 15:Raskin notes there are like 100 paragraphs about Congress in the Constitution, but only like four about the presidency, one of which is about impeaching their ass.

4: 16:Raskin reminds Trump's lawyers that they don't need to worry about whether the trial is constitutional, because the Senate voted on that Tuesday. Please focus on the facts, sirs. Let the constitutional argument go, like a common Elsa from Frozen , Castor the Disaster and the Yelly One, OK?

Here are some questions for them, from Raskin, in case they haven't written a defense yet:

1. Why did Trump not tell his terrorists to stop it?

2. Why did he do nothing to stop it for two hours?

Oh you guys, this is funny.

3. Why didn't he ever condemn the thing his terrorists did for him?

3.5 BONUS LEGAL QUESTION: IF a president invited a violent insurrection against America, would that be a bad high crime and misdemeanor?

4. There is no fourth question, let's see how you do with those questions, Pinky and the Brain.

4: 23:And that ... we think that is it!

First there will obviously be some kind of hysterical shitfit from a Republican probably.

You have two assignments.

1. Please click the buttons below to make donations, we say it a lot, but we don't have extra funding besides y'all readers, and that is where our salaries and benefits and servers come from.

2. Go read about YESTERDAY'S shitfit, pulled by GOP Senator Mike Lee, written about by Liz, who will PROOOOOOOOBABLY be your liveblogger for tomorrow's impeachening, with Pinky and the Brain!

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter RIGHT HERE, DO IT RIGHT HERE! 

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