I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, February 10th.

Today and tomorrow, Democrats from the House of Representatives will begin their arguments to the Senate and the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, as you know, for what they're calling incitement of insurrection.

At stake in these impeachment proceedings is whether former President Trump would be allowed to run for office again.

That's what's technically at stake.

Democrats see larger issues of truth and democracy

also in play. So if the charge is incitement of insurrection, will the Democrats begin and end

on January 6th, or will they try to build a narrative of months of incitement, maybe years,

to prepare people to aim for a coup in the streets

as supporters if the courts and state legislatures didn't do it for Trump themselves. Could this be

preparing people for insurrection if necessary? In this exchange, where the journalist

during the campaign on September 23rd.

Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transfer of power after the election?

Well, we're going to have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots,

and the ballots are a disaster.

I understand that, but people are rioting. Do you commit to making sure that there's a peaceful transfer of power? We want to get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful, there won't be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation. The ballots are at a control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it

better than anybody else. So, whoa, if you never heard that one before, a peaceful transition

of power, only if he and he alone judge the results as valid, otherwise by implication

civil war. And remember this? When he was asked in one of the debates, of course, about his support

for the violent white supremacist proud boys, he seemed to tell them to be ready for action.

Proud boys, stand back and stand by. You all know that clip. So where might that fit into an impeachment trial with me now msnbc chief

legal correspondent Ari Melbur also the host of his show the beat weeknights at six eastern

and probably of gobs and gobs of special coverage in the coming days so Ari thanks for squeezing

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