SEE IT: Harrowing footage at Trump’s trial reveal Schumer, Pence, Romney were feet away from Capitol attackers
It could have been so much worse.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and scores of other lawmakers and staff were just feet away from coming face-to-face with the belligerent pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last month, never-before-seen surveillance footage from the deadly attack revealed.
The harrowing footage was introduced by the nine Democratic House managers as part of their first round of arguments at Donald Trump’s unprecedented second impeachment trial on Wednesday. They described the videos as evidence of “the chaos and madness” Trump unleashed on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“We all know that awful day could have been so much worse,” California Rep. Eric Swalwell, one of the managers, said before playing portions of the footage on a large screen in the very same Senate chamber that was overrun by Trump’s violent supporters weeks ago.
“The only reason it was not was because of the extraordinary bravery of the men and women of the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Departments.”
The managers gave special credit to Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who played a key role in directing Utah Sen. Mitt Romney to safety.
Surveillance video shows Goodman running toward Romney in a hallway and directing the Trump-critical Republican to run back the way he came as he was unknowingly heading straight for the attackers, many of whom were wielding baseball bats and other weapons. Romney was seen in the video hurrying back as requested and later evacuated to an undisclosed location.
Minutes after Romney was shepherded away, the mob emerged in the same hallway, the footage shows.
Staying behind, Goodman got the attention of the attackers and goaded them into chasing after him.
“Where are they counting the votes?” the attackers, fired up by Trump’s speech earlier in the day, yell in the video. Goodman shouts back at them: “Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”
Unbeknownst to the attackers, Goodman was steering them away from Pence and his family, who were in a room just 100 feet away off to the side of the Senate chamber. Pence, his wife and children were seen in separate security footage running down a flight of stairs to safety as Goodman distracted the mob.
Many of the Capitol attackers were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” as they ransacked the Capitol, furious with him for performing his constitutional duty as the presiding officer over the congressional count of the Electoral College votes that certified President Biden’s election victory.
The managers praised Pence for following through with the certification and noted that his adherence to the law prompted Trump to tweet in the middle of the riot that his vice president had lacked “the courage” to do “what should have been done.”
“It is no wonder that the vice president of the United States was the target of their wrath,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Rep. Stacey Plaskett, one of the managers. “They did it because Donald Trump sent them on this mission.”
Schumer, the Senate’s majority leader and most powerful member, was spotted on another security camera walking with his security detail to be evacuated after the mob breached the building.
But the New York Democrat was then seen running back around after hearing the insurrectionists approaching. As Schumer ran, a couple of Capitol Police officer slammed a door shut behind him and pressed their bodies against it as they prepared to face off with attackers, the footage shows.
Other chilling footage showed the attackers smashing their way into quarters of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had been evacuated off the Capitol complex at that point, the managers said. However, some of Pelosi’s staff were left behind, barricading themselves in an office, as the insurrectionists could be heard outside the door yelling, “Where are you Nancy? We’re looking for you, Nancy!”
Some of the most disturbing footage released by the managers featured police officers getting beaten bloody by the pro-Trump attackers.
“We’re still taking rocks, bottles and pieces of flag and metal pole,” a panicked officer can be heard shouting to colleagues on dispatch.
Five people died in the Jan. 6 chaos, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Two more officers who responded to the attack committed suicide days afterward.
Republicans and Democrats alike shook their heads in dismay as the footage played in the Senate chamber.
But most Republicans did not appear convinced that the graphic videos should translate into a vote to convict Trump, who’s the first ex-president to face an impeachment trial and the first president to get impeached twice.
“The language from the president doesn’t come close to meeting the legal standard for incitement,” said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of a handful of GOP senators who tried to invalidate electoral votes during the joint session on Jan. 6.
Trump’s lawyers, who will be given a chance to make their case after the impeachment managers wrap up their arguments Thursday, claim the former president should be acquitted because the incendiary speech he delivered before the riot was protected by the First Amendment.
But Trump’s pre-riot speech — in which he urged the attackers to “fight like hell” to stop the “bulls--t” certification of Biden’s election — was just the violent culmination of a sweeping plot to overthrow American democracy, the managers argued.
“Senators, this clearly was not just one speech,” Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse said. “It was part of a carefully planned, months-long effort with a very specific instruction: Show up on Jan. 6 and get your people to fight.”
The managers charged Trump laid the groundwork for the bloody attack by telling his supporters throughout the 2020 campaign that the only way he could lose the Nov. 3 election was if Democrats rigged it.
Even though no evidence of widespread fraud or cheating ever materialized, Trump followed through by waging a baseless legal war in courts across the country after Biden was declared the winner on Nov. 7.
As his various lawsuits failed, Trump moved on to pressuring his own Justice Department to intervene. He also put the squeeze on local officials in states like Georgia, threatening them that they could face criminal consequences if they didn’t help him overturn the election.
But “none of it worked,” Neguse said.
“So what does he do?” he continued. “With his back against the wall when all else has failed, he turns back to his supporters who he’d already spent months telling the election was stolen, and he amplified it further.”
Having fed them lies about the election for months, Trump knew what he was doing when he told thousands of his supporters — many of them armed — to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and show “strength,” lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) alleged.
“Trump was no innocent bystander,” Raskin said. “(He) became the inciter-in-chief.”
The managers also said Trump’s first reaction to the attack spoke volumes.
Instead of condemning the rioters, he posted a video on Twitter professing his “love” for them, calling them “very special” and saying that he understood “their pain” because the election was “stolen” from them.
“He watched it on TV like a reality show,” Raskin said. “He reveled in it.”
While Trump cheered on the attackers, Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, called senators to ask that they still move forward with objections to the electoral certification — another illuminating piece of evidence, according to the managers.
“This is as clear evidence as I have ever seen of what Donald Trump cared about that day,” said Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline.
It ultimately remains unclear if there are enough votes to convict Trump.
Six Republicans joined the Senate’s 50 Democrats in voting Tuesday to let the trial proceed, a sign they may be willing to back conviction. But the Dems ultimately need the support of at least 17 Republicans to convict Trump, making the prospect a long shot. If convicted, the Senate can separately vote to bar Trump from ever again holding public office.
A final vote on conviction is expected as early as this weekend.
