One of the many arguments from former President Donald Trump’s lawyers defending him in his second impeachment trials is that he couldn’t possibly have caused the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
At the top of her show Tuesday, MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace read the case against Trump released by House Impeachment Managers. In response, Trump and his attorneys filed their response, which Wallace found particularly puzzling.
“Their argument centers mainly on process points,” she said. “Claiming that it’s unconstitutional to impeach a president once he’s out of office. We’ll work to debunk that in a moment but first, their arguments on substance, especially the words uttered publicly by their client are interesting too. Here’s what appears to be the very best they could come up with: ‘It is denied that the phrase ‘if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore’ had anything to do with the action at the Capitol. As it was clearly about the need to fight for election security.’ What? That’s not how the insurrectionists took Trump’s words at all.”
She showed videos from Trump’s supporters watching his speech. When Trump called for them to “fight like hell” and “march to the Capitol” they began shouting and chanting “take the Capitol!”
“And this complicates the defense lawyer’s case too,” Wallace said, citing reports that Trump gleefully watched the attack on the Capitol from the White House. “So, we all know now that Donald Trump went home and watched the insurrection unfold on live TV for hours and hours and hours. Didn’t even take calls. And he never rushed to Twitter to clarify, ‘whoa, whoa, wait, my supporters misunderstood me.’ He never addressed the American people as president until much, much later. Until much of the damage was already done hours after the Capitol was breached and even then, he told the insurrectionists he ‘loved them.'”
See her opener below: