It was “a little terrifying”, Eleanor Roosevelt told the Associated Press about her husband Franklin’s inauguration as US president in 1933. “The crowds were so tremendous. And you felt that they would do anything – if only someone would tell them what to do.”
The ability of leaders to turns crowds into mobs and bend them to their will has been a constant in history and was a focus of the third day of former US president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate on Thursday.
Video clips showed how the mob on 6 January built an unstoppable momentum, with Trump supporters feeding off each other’s energy and feeling emboldened to act in ways as a collective that many might have hesitated to do as individuals.
Their allegiance to Trump carried echoes of cultists, religious fanatics or 1980s English football hooligans – blind devotion to one man or tribe unleashing irrational passions and the belief that anything is permitted.
What the trial could not dwell on was the complex psychological, sociological and cultural threads of why these people came to be seduced by a demagogue so that they were ready to “fight for Trump”, brand the police “traitors” and desecrate a temple of US democracy.
Nor could it investigate America’s historical fascination with violence, from the massacres of Native Americans to the slavery of Africans, from school shootings to the death penalty, from foreign wars to the assassinations of four US presidents.
And the House impeachment managers said little about the complicity of rightwing media, social media platforms or Republican politicians, some of whom were sitting in the Senate chamber itself.
Their focus is not on the collaborators but Trump himself and how he spent years fueling a climate of violence, sowing distrust in election integrity and manipulating the emotions of Americans who were then willing to walk on hot coals on his behalf.
“January 6 was not some unexpected radical break from his normal law-abiding and peaceful disposition,” said lead manager Jamie Raskin. “This was his essential MO. He knew that egged on by his tweets, his lies and his promise of a ‘wild’ time in Washington to guarantee his grip on power, his most extreme followers would show up bright and early, ready to attack, ready to engage in violence, ready to ‘fight like hell’ for their hero.”
Screams resounded in the ornate Senate chamber as the trial again considered audio and video evidence from the assault on the Capitol as well as clinical documents. In an indictment, one invader said: “DC. Trump wants all able-bodied Patriots to come.” In a criminal complaint, Bruno Cua was quoted as saying: “President Trump is calling us to FIGHT!” and “This isn’t a joke.”
Samuel Fisher, arrested in connection with the siege, wrote on his website: “Trump just needs to fire the bat signal … deputize patriots … and then the pain comes.”
There was a video in which one rioter said to another as they entered a congressional office: “He’ll be happy – what do you mean, we’re fighting for Trump.” Social media footage caught people shouting: “We were invited here!”
And after the insurrection, estate agent Jenna Ryan told CBS News: “I thought I was following my president. I thought I was following what we were called to do.” Another told the New York Times: “We wait and take orders from our president.”
Congresswoman Diana DeGette told the Senate: “Their own statements before, during and after the attack make clear the attack was done for Donald Trump at his instructions and to fulfill his wishes.
“They truly believed that the whole intrusion was at the president’s orders. This was not a hidden crime. The president told them to be there, so they actually believed they would face no punishment.”
The mob repeated language they heard from Trump such as “fight like hell” and “stop the steal”, DeGette added. “They came because he told them to. And they did stop our proceedings – temporarily – because he told them to.”
But after the riot, she continued, Jacob Chansley, who infamously wore furs and a horned headdress in the Capitol building, expressed regret and said he felt “duped” by Trump – a hint of awakening to his otherwise extraordinary power of mind control.
The prosecutors went on to put the riot in the context of Trump’s repeated comments condoning and glorifying violence and praising “both sides” after the 2017 outbreak at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Raskin said: “There’s a pattern staring us in the face. When Donald Trump tells the crowd as he did on January 6 to fight like hell or you won’t have a country any more, he meant for them to fight like hell.”
Earlier this week, Trump’s bumbling defense lawyers argued that the real motivation of the trial is stop him running for president again. The Democratic House impeachment managers have been careful to mostly avoid this topic lest it make the charge of partisanship too easy.
But Raskin went there on Thursday, asking senators whether they honestly believe Trump would not incite more violence if he occupied the White House again. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that?” he demanded. “Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?
“If he gets back into office and it happens again, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.”
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