Ex-President Donald Trumps legal team presented an endless stream of lies, bad faith arguments and out-of-context clips on Friday in an effort to excuse the former president for riling up his supporters to storm the the Capitol, watching silently as they violently overtook the building, and then, when he finally called for peace, still praising the violent mob.

Instead, his impeachment defense lawyers showed Democrats using the word fight over and over again, falsely claimed antifa stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, and presented clips of Black Lives Matter protests to distract from Trumps long record of encouraging violence.

Unlike the left, President Trump has been entirely consistent in his opposition to mob violence, Trump attorney Michael van der Veen said. For Democrats, they have clearly demonstrated that the opposition to mobs and their view of using the National Guard depends upon the mobs political views.

The defense presentation came after two days of House Democratic managers laying out Trumps long history of encouraging violence. Trumps team tried to turn the focus elsewhere. Theyre at an advantage, since theyre likely to succeed whether they make a strong defense or not. Most Republicans voted earlier this week that the entire trial should be dismissed because Trump is no longer the president. Unlike that vote, which required only a simple majority to proceed, a conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds vote a bar that seems unattainable for Democrats.

Still, Trumps impeachment managers were forced to offer something in his defense, beyond that he cannot be impeached now that hes out of office. They wrapped up after less than three hours of defense, even though they were allotted 16, and spent some of that time replaying the same clips.

Not only President Trumps speech on January 6, but indeed his entire challenge to the election result, was squarely focused on how the proper civic process could address any concerns to the established legal and constitutional system, said van der Veen, who previously said in an impeachment trial brief that Trump was right to claim hed won the election in a landslide .