Congressman David Cicilline (RI-1) made an impassioned speech to the senate during his opening remarks of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in which he said Trump “sided with the insurrectionists” in the January 6th attack of the U.S. Capitol Building.
“The president of the United States sided with the insurrectionists. He celebrated their cause. He validated their attack,” Cicilline said. “He told them, ‘Remember this day forever!’ hours after they marched through these halls looking to assassinate Vice President Pence, the speaker of the House and any of us they could find.”
“Given all that, it’s no wonder that President Trump would rather talk about jurisdiction,” he added.
“Let me be crystal clear: President Trump was not impeached because the words he used, viewed in isolation without context, were beyond the pale. Plenty of other politicians have used strong language, but Donald J. Trump was president of the United States,” Cicilline said.
“Plenty of other politicians have used strong language,” he said.
“Donald J Trump was president of the United States. He sought to overturn a presidential election that had been upheld by every single court to consider it,” he said.
“He spent months, insisting to his base that the only way you could lose was a dangerous wide-ranging conspiracy against them in America itself,” he said.
