House impeachment managers began presenting their prosecution of former President Trump on Wednesday, laying out their evidence — including previously unseen Capitol security footage from the Jan. 6 insurrection — before a divided Senate.
The big picture: One by one, managers detailed how Trump laid the groundwork for his supporters to believe “the big lie” — that the election would be stolen — for months leading up to the attack. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) called Trump’s false claims “the drumbeat being used to inspire, instigate, and ignite them,” stressing that the incitement didn’t just begin with the president’s speech on Jan. 6.
Highlights:
- Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) opened by stating the evidence his team will present demonstrates that Trump was “no innocent bystander”— and that he “assembled, inflamed and incited his followers” on his way to the “greatest betrayal of the presidential oath in the history of the United States.”