Insurrection is not birthed from a single speech.
Though President Donald Trump stoked enflamed passions and exhorted a crowd he convened to “walk down to the Capitol,” which they subsequently ransacked as the world watched, it is folly to lay this tragic outcome entirely at his feet.
Trump had plenty of help along the way.
Before he even took the stage on Wednesday, his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told the crowd “trial by combat” would be necessary. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. ratcheted the rhetoric even higher by warning legislators that “we’re coming for you” only hours before the crowd stormed the Capitol.
None of this is new. Trump and his sycophants spent the past five years, nearly every moment since he descended the escalator in Trump Tower, cultivating resentment, anger and hate.
As Trump’s sway over the Republican Party grew, the cacophony of copycats’ caterwauling grew with it. Here in Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert is the perfect example.
