Name: Trump's attack on Gov. Doug Ducey, Maricopa County election protest cited in impeachment trial
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Trump's attack on Gov. Doug Ducey, Maricopa County election protest cited in impeachment trial

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Arizona RepublicView CommentsHouse Democrats pointed to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and other public officials in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as evidence of a pressure campaign that they say he stoked into deadly violence.During a daylong presentation of their evidence Wednesday, the House impeachment managers also referenced the pro-Trump protests outside of Maricopa County’s election center, where those gathered on election night, Nov. 3, and beyond demanded workers keep counting votes in the hopes that Trump would win the state.&nbsp;Citing Trump’s own words, the managers contended that he provoked supporters to show up and march on&nbsp;the Capitol after instigating them for weeks ahead of the riot. Calling him the “inciter-in-chief,” they said Trump systematically worked to undermine confidence in the election by telling his supporters they needed to “stop the steal,” and “fight like hell” to make sure he won.When that wasn’t enough, who would not bend his way, including Ducey and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, House managers said, before&nbsp;desperately trying&nbsp;to persuade Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” him enough votes to flip the election results there.Finally, House managers said, Trump summoned supporters to Washington, D.C., whipped them into a frenzy the day of the attack and told them to march on the Capitol.&nbsp;There, they violently attacked the Capitol, assaulted police, and sent Vice President Mike Pence and his family,&nbsp;lawmakers and staff fleeing&nbsp;for their lives. Many thought they would die at the hands of the rioters, House managers said. Five people died.As rioters trashed the Capitol, they set up gallows they said were intended for Pence and searched for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as staff hid behind closed doors. House managers noted that Trump refused to speak out immediately to urge the rioters to stop. Instead, he&nbsp;called a GOP&nbsp;senator to ask him to do his part to delay the certification.&nbsp;"He made clear his focus was the same goal of the attackers he had&nbsp;incited to stop the certification process and prevent a peaceful transition of power," said Rep.&nbsp;David Cicilline, D-R.I.The House managers played a video of some rioters saying they had shown up that day — when Pence and Congress were&nbsp;certifying the results of the election —&nbsp;because Trump&nbsp;told them&nbsp;to do it.“His commands led to their actions,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump last month on one article of inciting an insurrection. Trump's Senate trial started Tuesday.&nbsp;Democrats spent Wednesday showing never-before-seen security footage that showed just how close rioters&nbsp;— some armed&nbsp;— had gotten to senators before they fled from the chamber.Videos&nbsp;showed law enforcement hustling senators, who were&nbsp;unaware of how close the&nbsp;mob was, away to safety on that day.Other footage,&nbsp;which had been widely seen, showed a police officer in anguish as he was crushed between doors by the&nbsp; mob, and the shooting death of a pro-Trump rioter.As some of the most riveting&nbsp;video played, some senators took notes or whispered&nbsp;to each other.&nbsp;Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., shook her head several times during several clips. During one that showed rioters banging on the doors of the Capitol, she held her hands on her stomach and to her chest for several moments, appearing to take a deep breath.&nbsp;Trump's defense team has&nbsp;argued in briefs and during proceedings on Tuesday that the former president&nbsp;should not be held accountable for the actions of the rioters. Trump's attorneys have said that his remarks before the rally were protected by the First Amendment and that the trial was unconstitutional in part because he is no longer in office, a point the Democratic managers and scholars have disagreed with.&nbsp;&nbsp;Castro showed the senators sitting as jurors in Trump's second impeachment trial the images of tweets from Trump telling supporters on Nov. 5 to “STOP THE COUNT!” and “STOP THE FRAUD!”&nbsp;“Senators, this is dangerous,” Castro said. “This is the commander in chief telling his supporters your election is being stolen and you must stop the counting of American votes, and it worked. His words became their actions, his commands led to their actions.”Castro showed pictures of protesters outside the Maricopa County election center on Nov. 5, where a crowd of hundreds was gathered.That night, told those gathered that “the world is watching the example of Arizona, the president is watching the example, you’re not gonna let 'em steal this.”&nbsp;The same day as the tweets, Castro said, “around 100 Trump supporters showed up in front of a Maricopa County election center in Phoenix, some of them carrying rifles, literally trying to intimidate officials to stop the count, just as President Trump had commanded."&nbsp;“Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said protesters were causing delay and disruption and preventing those employees from doing their job,” Castro said.&nbsp;Democrat Joe Biden ultimately carried Arizona by 10,457 votes, the narrowest margin in the country, and won the presidency.&nbsp;After Ducey certified the state’s election results, Trump lashed out on Twitter, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., noted. He showed senators Trump’s tweets against Ducey and Kemp.&nbsp;“Between Governor @Dougducey of Arizona and Governor @BrianKempGA of Georgia, the Democrat Party could not be happier,” a Trump tweet from Dec. 5 read. “They fight harder against us than do the Radical Left Dems. If they were with us, we would have already won both Arizona and Georgia.” Sinema and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., both defended the integrity of the state’s election in the days after the voting.&nbsp;Neither has said how they are weighing the evidence against Trump, but both have said he incited the rioters.&nbsp;The Arizona pieces of evidence were just a sliver of the reams of evidence House managers presented Wednesday as part of the 16 hours they have to present their case.&nbsp;Trump’s team will then have 16 hours to defend the former president.&nbsp;Trump is expected to be acquitted in his second impeachment trial in the 50-50 Senate, where many Republicans remain&nbsp;aligned with him.Before wrapping up the case against Trump on Wednesday evening, Castro asked senators to listen to Trump's video message to rioters, which came after the insurrection had raged for hours. In that video, he told protesters he loved them, but they needed to go home. Trump repeated the claim that brought many of them there to begin with: "We had&nbsp;an election that was stolen from us."&nbsp;Castro said the video proved that Trump sought to excuse the mob's behavior, not condemn it.&nbsp;Castro offered&nbsp;video of Jake Angeli, a Phoenix rioter who wore red, white, and blue face-paint and a&nbsp;fur bonnet with horns.&nbsp;"Donald Trump asked everybody&nbsp;to go home," Angeli said on the Jan. 6 footage. "He just said it. He just put out a tweet. It's&nbsp;about a minute long. He asked everybody to go home. ... We f------&nbsp;won. We won by&nbsp;sending a message to&nbsp;the senators and the&nbsp;congressmen. We won by sending a message to Pence, OK? ... If they don't uphold the Constitution, then we will remove them from office one way or another."Angeli, who became a recognizable symbol of the riot, has since been arrested by the FBI and charged with six criminal accounts; he is in custody in D.C., pending a trial.Angeli, through his attorney, issued a statement on Monday apologizing for his actions, saying he was wrong to enter the building.USA TODAY&nbsp;contributed to this article.Have news to share about Arizona's U.S. senators or national politics?&nbsp;Reach the reporter on and . Contact her at and 602-444-4712.Support local journalism.&nbsp;.Subscribe for free to The Gaggle&nbsp;political podcast on , , or wherever you listen to audio content.View Comments

Arizona RepublicView CommentsHouse Democrats pointed to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and other public officials in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as evidence of a pressure campaign that they say he stoked into deadly violence.During a daylong presentation of their evidence Wednesday, the House impeachment managers also referenced the pro-Trump protests outside of Maricopa County’s election center, where those gathered on election night, Nov. 3, and beyond demanded workers keep counting votes in the hopes that Trump would win...

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Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

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Trump's attack on Gov. Doug Ducey, Maricopa County election protest cited in impeachment trial

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