Democrats Claim Trump Conspired with Proud Boys, Message Boards in Capitol Riot

House impeachment managers argued Wednesday afternoon that then-President Donald Trump had not only incited the January 6 Capitol riot with his speech, but had secretly planned the riot by conspiring with the Proud Boys, among others.

Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) brought up the debunked claim that Trump used his appearance at the first presidential debate to communicate with the right-wing Proud Boys — some of whom, she said, would later appear at the Capitol riot.

She also claimed that Trump and his aide monitored right-wing message boards, and that they both knew about, and approved of, violent messages being posted there by people who were planning to come to Washington, DC on Jan. 6.

Plaskett offered no evidence whatsoever of actual coordination between Trump and these groups and individuals, but observed conspiratorially that members of the mob at the Capitol riot were seen wearing “earpieces” during the melee.

Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) made similar claims, arguing that Trump had disseminated violent messages in rallies leading up to Jan. 6. She claimed that he knew the rally he convened at the Ellipse would be violent: “He’d assembled thousands of violent people, people he knew were capable of violence, people he had seen be violent.”

She then claimed President Trump deliberately incited them — that he “lit the fuse and sent the angry mob to fight the perceived enemy.”

Dean acknowledged that Trump told the crowd to march “peacefully and patriotically,” but then noted that he had only said it once, while he had used the word “fight” many more times.

Dean herself has used the word “fight” frequently.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.