US President Donald Trump’s supporters will gather outside the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Probal Rashid | LightRocket | Getty Images
President Donald Trump has helped provoke the swarms of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
The damning remarks on the Senate floor come when Republican and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., worked in Kentucky to erase details about Trump’s impending trial.
“The crowd was lying,” McConnell told the chamber, which had been evacuated two weeks earlier when rioters stormed the building. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
The GOP leader brought the direct link between the Republican president’s rhetoric and the January 6 riot, which left five dead, a day before Electoral President Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president.
McConnell rejected pressure from Democrats to hold the indictment before Trump left office, but he told colleagues he did not decide whether Trump should be convicted in the Senate for inciting the riot.
Trump was indicted in the Democratic-led House last week in a 232-197 vote, with 10 Republicans voting in favor.
Trump is the only president in American history to have been charged twice.
McConnell’s remarks also suggested that other leaders were responsible for the attack. Critics have called on lawmakers, especially GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, to resign after objecting to the results of the key states.
McConnell congratulated Biden on his victory in mid-December, more than a month after the November 3 election.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on McConnell’s latest remarks.
Trump, who urged the crowd at a rally outside the White House to “fight like hell” and would go to the Capitol to stop the 2020 election, insisted that his remarks just before the riot were “completely appropriate”. ‘was.
In that speech, Trump reiterated the contagious and false allegation that he was robbed of re-election by widespread election fraud. He once again promised that he would never concede to Biden, and he insisted that his supporters go to the Capitol to “encourage” Republican lawmakers who promised to object to the outcome.
“We probably will not rejoice so much for some of them because you will never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” Trump said.
Many of his supporters who attended the rally walked directly across the National Mall to the Capitol, where a joint session of Congress convened to confirm Biden’s victory. Rioters broke through barriers and lines of law enforcement and entered the Capitol, forcing Congress to hide. Among them was Vice President Mike Pence, who led the event.
In his remarks Tuesday, McConnell said that “the last time the Senate met, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who were trying to stop Congress from fulfilling our duty.”
“They were trying to use fear and violence to stop a specific process of the first branch of the federal government that they did not like,” McConnell said.
“But we kept going. We stood together and said an angry crowd would have no veto over the rule of law in our country, not even for one night. We have confirmed the people’s choice for their 46th president. ‘
McConnell also promised that Biden’s inauguration would be ‘safe and successful’. The inauguration will be significantly reduced compared to previous ceremonies due to the coronavirus pandemic and the threat of violence.
After McConnell’s remarks, Schumer said on the Senate floor that “Donald Trump will never be eligible to run again.”
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability,” Schumer said.
“There will be an indictment in the United States Senate, there will be a vote on the president’s conviction for high crimes and transgressions, and if the president is found guilty, there will be a vote to detain him,” he said. Schumer said.
Trump, who recognized the coming end of his one term without conceding Biden, did not call his successor and did not invite the elected Democratic president to the White House before the inauguration.
Pence last week called the elected vice president, Kamala Harris, to congratulate her and offer his help before she is sworn in.