The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump is underway, and the former U.S. President has been accused of leaving Congress members “for dead” during the Capitol riots, according to Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX). Congressional Democrats have alleged that Trump is directly responsible for inciting the riots by telling the mob of his supporters that “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” During a presentation of evidence on Wednesday, Castro addressed Congress and said, “On January 6, President Trump left everyone in this Capitol for dead.”
He went on to share details of what Trump was doing while the insurrectionists were storming the Capitol, an assault that left one police officer dead — with two more later dying by suicide in the wake of the siege — and more than 100 officers injured. “For the next hour after President Trump’s tweets, he still did nothing. Not until 4:17 pm [Eastern US time], over three-and-half hours after the violence started, did our president send a message finally ask the insurgents to go home,” he said. Castro added that it was not just the members of Congress who were in danger from Trump’s words, but Mike Pence as well, who Trump criticized on Twitter more than one hour into the assault. “He further incites the mob against his own vice president whose life was being threatened.”
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Rep. Joaquin Castro: “We have spent trillions of dollars building the strongest military in the world, and billions of dollars on the most sophisticated weaponry on the planet, to prevent the kind of attack that occurred at this Capitol on January 6” https://t.co/YubPpuDO6i pic.twitter.com/055YlMym7R
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 11, 2021
Castro also claimed that he believes the Capitol riots were completely avoidable, saying that Democrats feel Trump’s words and actions leading up to the terrible incident prove he was responsible for inciting his supports to revolt. “The evidence shows clearly that this mob was provoked over many months by Donald J. Trump. And if you look at the evidence, his purposeful conduct, you’ll see that the attack was foreseeable and preventable.”
Finally, before ending, Castro urged his fellow congress leaders to consider the evidence that is being presented when deciding on their vote. “We cannot let them use what happened on Jan. 6 to define us, who we are, and what we stand for,” he said. “We get to define ourselves by how we respond to the attack of Jan. 6.”
