Get ready for Donald Trump’s own “fighting” words to come back to haunt him this week. In the Senate impeachment trial, the former’s president’s attorneys are expected to argue that their client urged peace in his speech preceding the riot on Capitol Hill. In a brief filed Monday they write:
“Words do matter and the words of President Trump’s January 6th speech speak for themselves. President Trump did not direct anyone to commit lawless actions, and the claim that he could be responsible if a small group of criminals (who had come to the capital of their own accord armed and ready for a fight) completely misunderstood him, were so enamored with him and inspired by his words that they left his speech early, and then walked a mile and a half away to ‘imminently’ do the opposite of what he had just asked for, is simply absurd.”
But Vox’s Aaron Rupar points out:
That sounds nice, but it doesn’t capture what actually happened on January 6. In reality, the main theme of Trump’s speech was the need to “fight like hell” in the hope of stopping Congress from certifying his Electoral College loss to now-President Joe Biden — an effort that culminated in a mob of his supporters overrunning law enforcement officers in a riot that ultimately claimed five lives and nearly allowed rioters to lay hands on members of Congress who fled the House and Senate chambers under duress.
CNN simplified all of this and edited all the time he said fight together. They found 20 instances. We can only assume the impeachment managers will present something similar to this during the trial.
Trump's impeachment lawyers say he only "used the word 'fight' a little more than a handful of times and each time in the figurative sense" during his January 6 speech.
He used the words "fight" or "fighting" 20 times: pic.twitter.com/hdKQCnjotL
— Alli Hedges Maser (@AllisonLHedges) February 9, 2021
Vice News also previously edited Trump’s entire Capitol Hill speech over video of the insurrection. It illustrates how his words enticed the crowd to storm the Capitol. Watch above.