I listened to Trump accept the Republican Party’s nomination and, during that speech in 2016, describe “American carnage.” During that nomination acceptance speech, I listened to him say, “I alone can fix it.” (He was very wrong.)
I listened to Trump say, about downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.” I listened in March and April and May when he said the virus will “go away.” Trump’s lack of action and abundant, repeated lies have made the pandemic impact much worse.
I listened to him say, for months in 2020, that if people were allowed to vote by mail, “the election will be stolen.”
And then I listened to him say, for weeks, “the election was stolen.”
In December, I listened to Trump encourage his supporters on Twitter to show up for a “big protest” in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, the day that Congress accepted the Electoral College votes.
I listened to him at a Georgia rally Jan. 4, when he told supporters, “If the liberal Democrats take the Senate and the White House — and they’re not taking this White House — we’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now. We’re going to take it back.”
In his speech before the riot on Jan. 6, I listened to Trump praise his supporters for showing up to “save our democracy.” I listened to him tell supporters, “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol … You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
And after weeks of being fed lies, his supporters interpreted and acted on his commands by breaking past police barricades and committing felonies by the dozen, while invading, damaging and desecrating the interior and exterior of the US Capitol.
I listened to Trump. For many years.
More than enough.