The question of whether President Trump incited the crowd to insurrection or not has been an extremely controversial question over the past few months. Trump’s impeachment for the incitement of insurrection made this an even more politically charged issue that people have been debating.
Some of the most influential quotes from Trump’s “Save Our Country” rally include when he said “We won this election, and we won it by a landslide”, “We will stop the steal”, “We will never concede”, “If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore”, and “we are going to the capital”. However, the President also said “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
According to the law, incitement has to be intended to cause violence and likely to cause violence. The important piece of this is the additional fact that it must be likely to cause imminent violent action.
Many experts think that this question should ultimately be left to a jury to decide. In my opinion, Trump did not incite the crowd to insurrection. I say this mainly because of his inclusion of “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”. This to me is evidence against him inciting an insurrection and is powerful reasonable doubt. The argument can easily be made that he did not encourage violence but actually encouraged peaceful protests.
On the other hand, I can see why the President was impeached for the incitement of an insurrection. The question of was his speech likely to cause violence is, in my opinion, likely true. He is a very powerful and influential person who many people follow and believe in. Therefore, people, especially his supporters, listen to what he is saying and are motivated to do what he suggests. When he discusses fighting and going to the capital, it could be taken in a more violent manner and inspire his audience to take violent action.
The more debatable question, in my opinion, is whether President Trump intended to cause violence. This is ultimately the question that people disagree on. Some people believe that his rhetoric suggests that he intentionally wanted to persuade his crowd to act in a violent manner because of the results from the election. Others point to the quote where Trump asks for peaceful and patriotic protests as evidence that he was not intentionally trying to cause violence.
In my opinion, there is not clear enough evidence that President Trump intended to cause violence. Based on his rhetoric alone, he did not clearly state that he wanted his supporters to commit any violent acts. However, some people point to the way in which Trump said what he said as evidence of his intentions to cause violence. I think that this is too theoretical to base this decision of intent. Therefore, although there is evidence that Trump may have intended to encourage violence, I do not think that there is enough evidence to demonstrate he intentionally incited the crowd to an insurrection.
Overall, because incitement is such a high bar, I do not think that Trump’s rhetoric at his “Save Our Country” rally is enough to demonstrate that he incited the crowd to insurrection.