February 11, 2021

In His Closing Argument, Raskin Posed 5 Questions for Trump’s Lawyers

The Impeachment Managers, led by United States Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md) walk through the Capitol Rotunda to begin the impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. Rod Lamkey/CNP/ZUMA

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Former President Donald Trump refused to testify during his Senate impeachment trial. So in closing the prosecution’s case on Thursday afternoon, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md), the lead House manager, listed the questions he would have asked Trump. He urged Trump’s lawyers to respond to them when they present their defense of Trump, which will begin on Friday.

  1. Why did President Trump not tell his supporters to stop the attack on the Capitol as soon as he learned of it?
  2. Why did President Trump do nothing to stop the attack for at least two hours after the attack began?
  3. As our constitutional commander-in-chief, why did he do nothing to send help to our overwhelmed and besieged law enforcement officers for at least two hours…after the attack began?
  4. Why did President Trump—not at any point that day—condemn the violent insurrection and the insurrectionists?
  5. If a president incited a violent insurrection against our government, would that be a high crime and misdemeanor? Can we all agree at least on that?

As Raskin finished, he quoted Thomas Paine and told the senators, “We need to exercise our common sense about what happened.”

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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