CrosswordNewsletters
DAILY BEAST
  • Covid-19
  • Cheat Sheet
  • Politics
  • Entertainment
  • Media
  • Royalist
  • World
  • Half Full
  • U.S. News
  • Scouted
  • Travel
Opinion

Here’s Why Trump’s Fighting Words Are a High Crime

COMMON SENSE
BEAST INSIDE
opinion

Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Getty

The First Amendment does not protect months of reckless, incendiary speech that foreseeably led to violence.

Jay Michaelson

Updated Feb. 13, 2021 3:35AM ET / Published Feb. 13, 2021 12:09AM ET 

“The First Amendment must be properly applied here,” impeachment defense lawyer Michael van der Veen insisted Friday morning, saying that Trump’s “fight like hell” talk on Jan. 6 was standard political rhetoric, protected by the Constitution.

This argument is legally wrong. And the reason is a cluster of concepts that recur in criminal and civil law: foreseeability, recklessness, and negligence.

Together, these terms stand for the common-sense principle that if you create the conditions for something to inevitably occur, you are responsible for it. If you put a bunch of oil-soaked rags next to an open flame, you are responsible for the fire that results, even if you didn’t deliberately set it. If you get drunk and drive, you are responsible for the death you caused, and will likely be charged with murder, rather than simply manslaughter. The law recognizes this all the time.

    DAILY BEAST
    • Covid-19
    • Cheat Sheet
    • Politics
    • Entertainment
    • Media
    • Royalist
    • World
    • Half Full
    • U.S. News
    • Scouted
    • Travel
    • Beast Inside
    • Crossword
    • Newsletters
    • Podcasts
    • About
    • Contact
    • Tips
    • Jobs
    • Advertise
    • Help
    • Privacy
    • Code of Ethics & Standards
    • Diversity
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Copyright & Trademark
    • Sitemap
    • Coupons
    © 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC