Jamie Raskin

January 6th was a culmination of the President`s actions, not an aberration from them. The insurrection was the most violent and dangerous episode so far in Donald Trump`s continuing pattern and practice of inciting violence.

Is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he`s ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?

Trump knew exactly what he was doing in inciting the January 6th mob. Exactly. He had just seen how easily his words and actions inspire violence in Michigan. He sent a clear message to his supporters. He encouraged planning and…

What makes you think the nightmare with Donald Trump and his lawmaking and violent mobs is over? If we let him get away with it, and then it comes to your state capitol, or it comes back here again, what are we going to say?

The reason that the framers gave Congress, the House the power to impeach, the Senate the power to try, convict, remove and disqualify was to protect the republic.

This is dangerous, Senators, and the future of our democracy truly rests in your hands.

To vote otherwise, is to vote against the constitution.

Donald Trump surrendered his role as commander in chief and became the insider in chief.

President Trump declared his conduct totally appropriate. So, if he gets back into office and it happens again, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

If we don`t draw the line here, what`s next? What makes you think the nightmare with Donald Trump and his lawmaking and violent mobs is over?

There's no January exception from impeachment that allows presidents free reign to commit crimes right before they leave office.

The evidence will show you that ex-President Trump was no innocent bystander.

This cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America.

President Trump may not know a lot about the framers but they certainly knew a lot about him.

This cannot be the future of America. We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government, and our institutions, because they refuse to accept the will of the people under the Constitution of the United…

To close, I want to say something personal about the stakes of this decision, whether President Trump can stand trial and be held to account for inciting insurrection against us.

Members of Congress in the House they were removing their congressional pins so they wouldn`t be identified by the mob as they tried to escape the violence.

President Trump has sent here today to stop the Senate from hearing the facts of the case. They want to call the trial over before any evidence is even introduced. Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offense in your last…

The January exception is an invitation to our founders' worst nightmare.

Their argument is that if you committed an impeachable offense in your last few weeks in office, you do it with constitutional impunity. This would create a brand new January exception to the Constitution.

We must ensure that Congress can continue to function in the face of the pandemic to work for them and for all Americans.

We must continue to expand access to civic participation in our elections in a secure manner.

We must ensure that the Capitol is safe and secure, while remaining accessible to the public.

I was honored, along with Ranking Member Rodney Davis and our two Senate colleagues, to play a small role in that session as a teller to read the results.

The vast majority of constitutional scholars who studied the question and weighed in on the proposition being advanced by the President this January exception, heretofore unknown, agree with us.