"I'd like to punch him in the face, I tell ya."
"He was swinging, he was hitting people, and the audience hit back. That's what we need more of."
Numerous incidents of violence followed these and other similar comments. John Franklin McGraw punched a man in the face at a Trump event, and then told Inside Edition that "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him." Donald J. Trump said that he was considering paying McGraw's legal bills.
Since Trump's election and inauguration, his comments appearing to incite violence have continued, as have incidents of violence in which those participating in violence have pointed to Trump as justification.
On July 2, 2017, President Donald J. Trump tweeted a video of himself body slamming a man with an image of "CNN" superimposed on him.
In August 2017, participants in a racist rally in Charlottesville, Va., credited President Trump with boosting their cause. Their violence included actions that led to a murder charge. President Trump publicly minimized the offense and sought to blame "many sides."
In these and similar actions and decisions, President Donald J. Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore, President Donald J. Trump, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office. (back to top)
Interference With Voting Rights
In his conduct while President of the United States, and while
campaigning for election to that office, Donald J. Trump, in violation
of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President
of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in
violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 1 of the
Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," has
engaged in acts of voter intimidation and suppression.
For months leading up to the November 2016 elections, Donald J. Trump
publicly encouraged his supporters, the same ones he had encouraged to
engage in violence, to patrol polling places in search of participants
in the virtually nonexistent practice of voter fraud. In so doing,
candidate Trump made would-be voters aware that they might face such
patrols. His remarks included:
"I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th, go around and
look and watch other polling places, and make sure that it's 100 percent
fine."
"We're going to watch Pennsylvania. Go down to certain areas and watch and study and make sure other people don't come in and vote five times."
Trump urged supporters to target Philadelphia, St. Louis, and other cities with large minority populations.
He created on his campaign website a way to sign up to "volunteer to be a Trump election observer."
When early voting began, incidents were reported of Trump supporters photographing voters and otherwise intimidating them.
Trump ally and advisor Roger Stone formed an activist group called Stop the Steal that acted in line with Trump's public statements. The group appeared to threaten violence against delegates if the Republican Party denied Trump its nomination. It then organized intimidation efforts in the general election around the unsupported claim that Trump's opponents would somehow "flood the polls with illegals. Liberal enclaves already let illegals vote in their local and state elections and now they want them to vote in the Presidential election."
According to the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006, in all federal elections from 2002 to 2005, a total of 26 people out of 197 million were convicted of trying to vote illegally.
Stone's organization created official-looking ID badges for volunteers and asked them to videotape voters, and conduct phony exit polls in nine cities with large minority populations.
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