What to know from the first day of Trump's Senate impeachment trial
![UP NEXT]()
UP NEXT
WASHINGTON - Vice President Mike Pence being hustled out of the Senate chamber as rioters approached. Rep. Dan Kildee telling fellow House members to remove their congressional pins so rioters wouldn't identify them. Ashli Babbit crumpling to the floor after being shot and killed.
In a series of harrowing video and audio clips capturing various vantage points of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, House managers prosecuting former President Donald Trump at Wednesday's impeachment trial said the proof of Trump's guilt was in watching and listening.
"Anyone they got their hands on they would have killed," Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic delegate from the Virgin Islands and a House prosecutor, said as she showed some of the videos of the assault.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
The dozens of clips, several from previously undisclosed security cameras, showed in vivid detail the violence police officers faced at the Capitol and just how close high-ranking U.S. officials and their staff were to coming face-to-face with the mob.
"They were talking about assassinating the vice president of the United States," Plaskett said as she guided senators who will decide Trump's guilt from moment to moment during the assault that killed five people, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.
"They did it because Donald Trump sent them," she said. He put a "target on their backs and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down."
More: Live impeachment updates: New footage shows Pence and family, lawmakers and staff taking cover as mob broke into Capitol
The videos were haunting: protestors, some in full body armor, breaching the Capitol; frantic police officers on their radios describing how they were overwhelmed; staffers to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whispering on a phone as protestors could be heard in the background pounding the door and shouting " Nancy, where are you?"
Previous footage and news reports showing the attack had already documented the dangerous and unnerving invasion. Thousands of Trump supporters had been encouraged by the then-president at a rally near the White House earlier that day to march to the Capitol and "stop the steal" of an election he wrongfully asserted had been stolen from him, though his lawyers said he never told them to attack the building.
© John Minchillo/APProtesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.
But the managers tried to drive home the terror of that afternoon with short, visceral clips of a Capitol under siege by a crowd that yelled at various times "We're here for you," "Stop the steal," "This is our f---ing House," and "Hang Mike Pence."
Pence was a target of the mob for his decision to preside over a ceremony that affirmed Joe Biden's victory over Trump, a victory that Trump said for months had been illegally taken from him despite no evidence or court rulings to back his claim.
Senators mostly remained motionless. Some jotted down notes, others leaned in toward the screens and quite a few whispered to one another as more and more videos were shown to them.
More: Mike Pence faces biggest loyalty test in announcing Trump's loss during a special session of Congress
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., shook her head several times while the clips played. 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.
At the end of the presentation by Plaskett and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., appeared to get emotional at his desk, bending his head down. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who sits next to him, put his hand on Lankford's arm as if to comfort him.
More: Donald Trump is unhappy with his legal team, allies say, but still confident he'll be acquitted
The most chilling moments showed Babbit getting shot just feet from the House chamber shortly after a protestor warns "He's got a gun," and lawmakers, including Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., scurrying for safety.
But the audio was also chilling, including when a House staffer instructed lawmakers where to find gas masks.
Several of the clips were audio traffic of police officers being overwhelmed as they vainly faced down overwhelming numbers armed with bats, fire extinguishers and bear spray.
"We're flanked," one terrified officer is heard saying. "We've been flanked and we've lost the line."
Contributing: Nicholas Wu and Christal Hayes
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harrowing new footage at Trump impeachment trial shows how close the mob got to Pence, Congress and staff during Jan. 6 assault