As protesters engulfed the Capitol on January 6, Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy called President Donald Trump. A concerned McCarthy called Trump to urge him to keep his supporters in check. But Trump didn’t seem interested at first saying it was the antifa, not his supporters, responsible for the riot, according to Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Washington Republican lawmaker. When McCarthy countered that interpretation, Trump was angry. “Well, Kevin, I think these people are more upset about the election than you are,” said Trump.
What followed was a screaming dispute between Trump and McCarthy. The House minority leader furiously told Trump that protesters were breaking into his office. “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?” McCarthy said supposedly. A few hours after the violent riot broke out, Trump shut down his supporters after his top aides urged him to do something. “Go home. We love you. You are very special,” said Trump in a video he tweeted later that day.
Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment, reported the appeal in a statement in which she asked others to come forward and reveal what they know about what happened that day. “To the patriots who were at the side of the former president while these talks were taking place, or even to the former vice president: if you have anything to add here, now is the time,” she said in a statement.
The new details about the call first reported by CNN bring up the key question of what Trump was doing and what he was thinking as his supporters forced him into the capital in a violent riot that ended up killing five people. “I think that speaks to the former president’s mindset,” said Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who also voted for Trump’s impeachment last month. “He did not regret seeing his uncompromisingly loyal vice president or Congress under attack from the mob he inspired. In fact, it looks like he was happy about it or at least liked the scenes that were horrible for most Americans across the country. “
During the impeachment trial, Trump’s lawyers insisted that the then president did not know that his vice president, Mike Pence, was in danger. But people close to Pence say this is not true. Pence’s top advisers are still irritated by how little Trump seemed to care what was happening to his vice president when his supporters invaded the Capitol.
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