Twice failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a warning to Republican senators ahead of the first day of arguments in the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump concluding that they — the jurors — will prove that they are “his co-conspirators” if they do not ultimately side with Democrats and convict him.
“If Senate Republicans fail to convict Donald Trump, it won’t be because the facts were with him or his lawyers mounted a competent defense,” Clinton said on Wednesday. “It will be because the jury includes his co-conspirators”:
Clinton also retweeted a video of the deceptively edited video presented by lead House impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who promised to impeach Trump before the former president formally took office and, notably, objected to the certification of the 2016 election results in 2017.
“As Rep. Jamie Raskin said of Donald Trump inciting an insurrection as president: ‘If that’s not an impeachable offense, there is no such thing,’” Clinton said:
While the footage moved Democrat lawmakers and members of the establishment media in an emotional way, the cherry-picked footage gave the false impression Trump directly incited his supporters, encouraging them to commit lawless deeds and engage in acts of violence at the U.S. Capitol — a prominent left-wing assertion not based in fact.
Democrats conveniently omitted a key part of Trump’s January 6 speech in the video, where he told supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) posed a question on Tuesday, asking whether the selectively edited video broke House Rules focusing specifically on the “dissemination by electronic means, including by social media, of any image, video, or audio file that has been distorted or manipulated with the intent to mislead the public.”
Six GOP senators sided with Democrats on Tuesday, deeming the trial constitutional after hours of debate. Five of the votes came as no surprise, as they — Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ben Sasse (D-NE), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) — also sided with Democrats after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) raised similar concerns over the constitutionality of the trial last month. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined them on Tuesday.
Opening arguments begin at noon.