Trump's ONE reference to "peaceful demonstration" was to provide him with plausible deniability

[Tom Rinaldo]

It was an emotionless scripted comment that he knew would not register with that crowd, especially after he followed that later with a dozen heated references urging them to "fight to save our country." Trump knew there would be violence and he knew that he would be blamed for it, hence that one comment was inserted into his speech. Republicans will attempt to use it exactly as Trump intended it, to shield him from culpability. I hope someone on the House manager's team points out the likelihood that his single listless call for peaceful behavior was always intended for post riot consumption, knowing that the overwhelming bulk of his more passionate remarks would literally incite a riot.

[live love laugh]

1. He told them to fight 20X and mentions peaceful demonstration once.

[BeyondGeography]

2. He needed to do better than a 20:1 ratio between "fight" and "peace"

for plausible deniability purposes.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. Fox etc. won't air that 20 to 1 ratio

"Peacefully demonstrate" will be aired as often as "Fight". It also may have been Trump's back up strategy to fend off any criminal charges if the coup failed. He would just need one juror to hold out and cause a mistrial based on Trump having "asked" "protestors" to be "peaceful".

Having said the above, I think the House managers blew Trump out of the water with their presentation.

[intrepidity]

3. Mob-boss-speak

One of his true skills.

[mobeau69]

4. Yep, SOP.

[IcyPeas]

5. "peaceful demonstration" wink wink

[gollygee]

6. Agreed

He knew what he was doing and wanted to have some kind of loophole or something. "I said they should be peaceful!" He knew exactly what he was doing.