Democratic impeachment managers opened their case against former President Donald Trump with an approximately 13-minute video graphically depicting the Jan. 6 insurrection that overtook the U.S. Capitol.
The video stitched together footage from an array of sources inside and outside of the building during the deadly assault, and featured some of the most infamous images captured that day, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer with blood streaming down his face pleading for backup as he was being crushed inside a doorway.
“If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead House impeachment manager, said at the conclusion of the video. “There can be no doubt that this is a valid and legitimate impeachment. And there can be no doubt that the Senate has the power to try this impeachment.”
The compilation also included the sound of a gun being shot within the Capitol, apparently capturing the moment that Capitol Police holding off rioters shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter among the mob that breached the Capitol.
The footage was left uncensored as the people present during the riots screamed epithets and labeled elected officials — including former Vice President Mike Pence — as traitors for not supporting Trump’s lie that the election was stolen from him.
Several other deaths have been linked to the insurrection, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick — who last Tuesday laid in honor in the Capitol, one month after dying from injuries sustained during the riot.
Footage from Jan. 6 is expected to play a central role in the Senate impeachment trial, the entirety of which is expected to be held this month.
Trump is the first president to have been impeached twice, though it appears unlikely that the Senate will vote to convict him of the single article of impeachment passed by the House.