The images of Trump’s mob are unforgettable

I felt sick to my stomach watching the House managers’ minute-by-minute presentation Wednesday of insurrectionists entering the Capitol, assaulting police officers, terrorizing lawmakers and staff. The near-miss incidents in which lawmakers and staff came within seconds of confrontation with the mob provided riveting viewing. Only the most heartless senators could fail to appreciate that “but for the grace of God,” they would have been beaten or killed. The visuals were all the more powerful because the people in peril were sitting as jurors in the trial of the disgraced former president who incited the mob.

Further depressing and incensing was the knowledge that most Republican senators, including those whose lives were saved during the evacuation of the Senate chamber (impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell of California said they came within just 58 steps of the mob), have been telling us — and more importantly, the mob’s victims — to “move on.” It defies belief that they are alive because of the courage of police, but haven’t the courage themselves to convict the person who put a target on their backs.

Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) also took us through the former president’s actions during the siege, including the unanswered pleas to demand that his supporters evacuate and his refusal to condemn the terrorists. Republicans trying to acquit on the grounds that members of the mob went to the Capitol on their own (patently false as that may be) have no explanation for the commander in chief’s abdication of his responsibility to defend the government, including his own vice president.

Several aspects of the presentation stood out — and will stay with us forever.

First, one could viscerally sense the barbarity of the mob. The hellish violence, the taunts and the determination to find and kill both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Vice President Mike Pence should appall any decent human. But not the former president. In a video to the mob, he told them, “We love you.” There is no more vivid example of the pathology of the ex-president who embraces anyone who will “fight” for him. By placing Pence center stage in the trial, House managers made clear just how dangerous it was for the ex-president to incite a mob willing to kill Pence.

Second, the disrespect and violence against law enforcement officers were more stunning than we initially realized. Video of police officer Daniel Hodges being crushed in a doorway, with blood on his face, should disabuse anyone of the notion that the former president and his minions revere the police. They stand not for law and order, but for chaos and malevolence.

Third, knowing that the vast majority of Republicans will nevertheless vote to acquit despite the shocking evidence should put in perspective how abnormal the Republican Party has become. To remain in good standing in the GOP, they must divorce themselves from any sense of compassion (for those hurt or killed), gratitude (toward those who saved them) or loyalty (not even to Pence). How will they rationalize their cringeworthy support for the MAGA cult leader years from now? How do they rationalize it now?

Fourth, the hysteria that the former president whipped up methodically and deliberately over the course of weeks likely could not have succeeded in motivating the mob had social media cut him off immediately after the election or if Fox News had not given him an audience of millions. (Disclosure: I am an MSNBC contributor.) His lies were amplified night after night by Fox News hosts. The Big Lie that the election was stolen was embraced by radio talk-show hosts and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Even now, when the results of their handiwork are seen, there is no remorse and no reconsideration of their racket whereby they made money off inflaming ignorant people. (Interestingly, Fox News cut away when the most searing images of the riot appeared. Averting their eyes and keeping their viewers in the dark was peak Fox.)

The Republicans who could sit through that presentation, disregard it and vote to acquit the ringleader in chief have irretrievably lost the moral standing to govern. There can be no “understanding” of their alleged grievances, no “unity” and no “moving on” so long as they remain loyal to the inciter of the mob that wreaked havoc on our democracy. They do not get to self-identify as “constitutional conservatives” or “law and order” Republicans if they vote to let the ex-president off.

Those who would acquit the former president after the voluminous, horrifying evidence of guilt are nothing more than apologists and enablers of a violent insurrection and the leader who incited it.