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The rioters came just 58 steps away from fleeing senators, and within feet of the hiding vice president. Today’s Senate impeachment proceedings told horror stories—and detailed just how close of a call the January 6 attack truly was.
Up until now, the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump has mostly been a big procedural squabble. But today, grainy security footage offered a visceral reminder of the stakes at hand.
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There is no defense—only complicity. “The remorseless, crushing power of the House managers’ evidence, all backed by horrifying real-time audio and video recordings, shuttered any good-faith defense of Trump on the merits of the case,” David Frum argues.
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And history will judge Trump’s Republican collaborators. Anne Applebaum sought to understand what drove their complicity in her cover story last summer. “We are in new territory here,” she tweeted today.
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The attack was bad. It was supposed to be worse. As our staff writer Elaine Godfrey, who was on the scene that day, reported last month: “It was easy to miss them with all the coverage of the costumes and poop-smearing and poses struck in Statuary Hall, but they were there, these military-styled men, carrying blunt instruments and fistfuls of zip ties.”