Senate jurors watch in silence as Impeachment managers show video of Capitol riot violence
09 February 2021
Impeachment managers played a 13-minute long video of the riotous events that unfolded on Jan. 6.
Details: The video captures scenes of a Trump-flag carrying mob wrestling with armored Capitol Police officers. The video also showed scenes of the insurgents forcibly entering the Capitol juxtaposed with the Senate calling for recess as they are warned "protesters are in the building."
- Screams of "Let's take the Capitol" and "Fight for Trump," rang out from the crowd of thousands approaching and then breaching the Capitol.
- One lone crowd participant who was seemingly directing people towards the Capitol yelled. "We are going to the Capitol where are problems are. It's that direction."
Why it matters: Though the outcome of the trial is already known, the vivid and disturbing images played to the room of silent Senators were meant to show the horrors of that day to the senate jurors, and to the American public.
- All members silent and looking at monitors on respective sides of chamber as video played.
- Sen. Ted Cruz watched his own desk being rifled through, screams of a Capitol police officer being crushed in door echoed through chamber, and the sequence of individual clips turned into video narrative of day.
Bottom line: Lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told the Senators that former President Trump was being impeached for the things depicted in the video. "You asked what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our Constitution? That's a high crime and misdemeanor. If that's not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing," Raskin said.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.