Massachusetts Congresswoman Katherine Clark weighed in on the start of the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, telling CNN that senators serving as jurors will face a critical choice during the proceedings.

“This is a case where we are putting our very democracy on trial,” the Democrat and assistant speaker told the network. “And I hope that the Republican senators move to convict because they believe in our country and in the future of a democracy and cutting off the fascism that this president has started to plant and has started to take root.”

Clark said she doesn’t buy the argument from Trump’s lawyers that the former president’s words — telling his supporters on Jan. 6 to “fight like hell” ahead of their insurrection at the Capitol — were not meant literally.

“I don’t think that argument gets you out of high school detention,” she said. “We have a president who has been on record for almost a year sowing doubt, misleading, lying to the American people about this election. And let’s be clear what his motivation was — it was to overrule the will of the people, retain the presidency illegally for himself. And frankly, I don’t think he cared who got hurt … what happened to his own vice president, what happened to the speaker or members of Congress. He doesn’t care what happens to the very tenants of our constitution and democracy. He cared about retaining power at all costs. And that is why this impeachment is so critical.”

Senators will have to choose as part of the trial, the congresswoman said.

“Are they going to be patriots?” she said. “Are they going to be truth-seekers, are they going to do what is right and true? Or are they going to continue to be loyal to a president who thinks nothing of misleading the American people and sowing violence against his own government?”

Watch her full appearance below:

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Original story here.