On Tuesday, House Democrats played a video delineating what happened on January 6 at the breach of the U.S. Capitol as they attempted to make the case that the impeachment of former President Donald Trump was constitutional. In response, former Utah GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz asked if the video had violated the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Seventeenth Congress that bar videos “distorted or manipulated with the intent to mislead the public.”
Chaffetz tweeted, “Go to page 34 of House Rules. Did the manipulated video violate the House Rules?”
Go to page 34 of House Rules. Did the manipulated video violate the House Rules?https://t.co/v7eyPYVUNo
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) February 9, 2021
Those rules state:
The Committee on Ethics is directed to report to the House, not later than December 31, 2021, any recommended amendments to the Code of Official Conduct, as well as any accompanying regulations, intended to address the circumstances and instances, if any, for which a Member, Delegate, Resident Commissioner, officer, or employee of the House may be subject to discipline for the dissemination by electronic means, including by social media, of any image, video, or audio file that has been distorted or manipulated with the intent to mislead the public.
New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin pointed out that the video elided remarks by Trump in which he stated that the protesters on January 6 should protest “peacefully and patriotically.” Zeldin stated:
The part that they did play of the president’s remarks, of course, end up cutting out the message the president sent to his supporters that day, that those who were heading to the Capitol should do so peacefully and patriotically. Of course, as they’re playing the videos and they’re telling their argument, they aren’t going to give the full story of the FBI warning a day ahead of time that this attack was going to take place or that pipe bombs were being found; they’re being placed and found before the president’s remarks were even concluded, or that the Capitol perimeter was being breached before the president was done with his speech.
There’s a full story here and one of the consequences of rushing to draft this article — and then so many of the House Democrats, they’re for speech with the impeachment — is that they’re basing this primarily on the argument that the president gave a speech that day that incited a riot. And in so many ways that’s actually been disproven by now, and to your point, Lindsey, if they’re going to start playing the video of what the president said, how do you cut it out at the point where the president’s telling his supporters to do so peacefully and patriotically?
WATCH: @RepLeeZeldin highlights how the House Democrats used a deceptively edited video to make their case during today's impeachment trial.
"How do you cut it out right at the point where [President Trump] is telling his supporters to do so peacefully and patriotically." pic.twitter.com/DavmmUvPB4
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 9, 2021
Prior to the showing of the video, one of the senior aides to the nine House Democratic impeachment managers said, “We plan to be succinct and to the point and non-repetitive. The attack happened in plain sight. There is compelling, overwhelming evidence. It’s on video and elsewhere. We plan to fully utilize all the evidence available in all the forums, including evidence that nobody has seen before.”