Top Democrat Jamie Raskin says an 'assassination party' tried to hunt down Pelosi and Pence during MAGA riot as Cory Booker leads calls for Trump's IMMEDIATE impeachment trial
Jamie Raskin, the lawmaker leading the team of impeachment managers, said Sunday that there was an 'assassination party' looking for Nancy Pelosi and threatening to 'hang' Mike Pence as Democrats attempt to prove there were 'capture and kill' teams involved in the Capitol storming.
'I want people to focus on the solemnity and the gravity of these events,' Raskin told CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday when describing the events of the January 6 Capitol storming.
'Five Americans are dead because a violent mob was encouraged, exhorted and incited by the President of the United State of America, which broke into the Congress of the United States, into the Capitol and came within a hair's breadth of hanging Vice President Pence. The words are still ringing in the ears of the members, 'Hang Mike Pence. Hang Mike Pence.' They built a gallows outside of the Capitol of the United States,' the Maryland representative said.
'There was an assassination party hunting for Nancy Pelosi,' he continued, adding: 'This was an attack on our country.'
Democrats are pushing to speed up the impeachment conviction process, with Senator Cory Booker hoping to start proceedings 'as quickly as possible.'
Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead impeachment manager, said Sunday that there was an 'assassination party' hunting down Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence during the Capitol riots earlier this month
At the same time, Senator Cory Booker says he expects to investigate the impeachment article from the House 'as quickly as possible' and not wait until after Joe Biden's first 100 days
The House voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday, exactly one week after the deadly riot. The article has not yet made its way to the Senate, where they will vote to either convict or dismiss the charge.
Some Democrats want to push off the investigation and conviction vote until after Joe Biden's first 100 days in office so they are able to focus on other business, like approving judicial and cabinet nominees.
'You don't need a six-month investigation to figure out what happened,' Raskin lamented.
Booker, a former presidential primary challenger to Biden, said the Senate shouldn't have to prioritize one over the other, and should be able to conduct an impeachment investigation and vote while also completing other business.
'There's some frustration about getting timelines set,' Booker told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday, adding he expects the probe to happen as soon as possible.
'The American people have a right to expect that we can work on a lot of different fronts — from an economic recession to a pandemic to national security threats — as well as holding a president accountable,' the California Democrat said.
A key part to Democrats' argument for conviction of Trump is that he incited a crowd so much that he actually motivated them to seek out to harm members of Congress or the Cabinet.
Progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, claims she feared for her life and was worried that Republican colleagues loyal to Trump would out her location to the mob in the midst of the riot.
A Trump-appointment Justice Department official said there is no direct evidence of any efforts to capture or assassinate lawmakers during the attack.
'We don't have any direct evidence of kill capture teams,' Michael Sherwin, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a press conference with reporters on Friday.
Democrats will argue in their impeachment trial that Donald Trump incited a violent crowd to storm the Capitol and claims they had plans to harm members of Congress and even the vice president
Acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said Friday there is no 'direct evidence of kill capture teams'
Pelosi appointed nine Democratic lawmakers to argue at trial in the Senate that Trump incited the riot to harm members of Congress and delay gratification of the Electoral College vote count. Raskin is leading that team.
Some rioters are on record saying they wanted to find Pelosi and Pence, who presided over the count. Others had zip ties, which could be used as handcuffs, hanging on their clothes as they breached the Capitol.
The other eight managers include Representatives Diana Degette of Colorado; David Ciclline of Rhode Island; Joaquin Castro Castor of Texas; Eric Swalwell of California; Red Lieu of California, Joe Neguse of Colorado, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and Delegate from the Virgin Islands Stacey Plaskett.
All managers are lawyers by education and trade and some are in the unique position to be witnesses to what they are charging the president with as lawmakers were forced to hide under seats as rioters beat on the door of the chamber and others sheltered in place in their offices.
'This is a case where the jurors were also victims, and so whether it was those who voted in the House last night or those in the Senate who will have to weigh in on this, you don't have to tell anyone who was in the building twice what it was like to be terrorized,' Swalwell said.
There are also calls for an investigation into some members of Congress who colleagues claim gave 'reconnaissance' tours to groups at the Capitol the day before the storming.
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