Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday night that the Senate can “relieve” the confusion between Senator Mike Lee and impeachment managers after Lee objected to the way managers characterized a report on a call that former President Donald Trump made to Lee’s phone during the Capitol Riot.
After making his point in the past two days that Trump should be convicted of inciting a Capitol insurrection, the House’s impeachment administrators will continue their case on Thursday. They can take up to eight hours, starting at noon, but it is unclear whether they will use all the allocated time.
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Managers must continue to argue that Trump planted the seeds of the Capitol attack for months, saying that he could not have lost the presidential election unless there was electoral fraud; not condemning the violence of its supporters; inviting a mass of its supporters to Washington, DC, on January 6; telling them to go to the Capitol; and failing to make efforts to stop the mob as soon as the riot started.
Trump’s defense could technically start making its case on Thursday if House administrators finished their initial statements earlier, but they are more likely to start on Friday. Trump’s defense team is arguing that he was within his First Amendment rights when making his claims about the election and he cannot be held responsible for the actions of criminals who invaded the Capitol. They also say that impeachment administrators are taking Trump’s comments out of context.
Jenny Louise Cudd inside the Capitol on January 6. The impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump for allegedly inciting the attack on the Capitol continues on Thursday.
(Criminal complaint.)
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Impeachment managers tried to avoid some of Trump’s early defenses at the start of the trial, while also maintaining a solemn tone, playing a horrific video of protesters attacking the Capitol Police, looking for lawmakers and their teams and calling for the death of the former vice president Mike Pence, among others. They relied mainly on security images of the Capitol, showing the number of closed calls that lawmakers had where they could have been swept and potentially injured or killed by the crowd.
“Obviously, it is very worrying to see the great violence that our Capitol Police and others are subjected to,” said Sen Mitt Romney, R-Utah, when asked about the video showing Officer Eugene Goodman, praised as a hero for his actions. in the riot, guiding the senator to safety. “It tears your heart and brings tears to your eyes, it was extremely distressing and emotional.”
But the solemn tone was broken on Wednesday during a fight between Lee, R-Utah, and the impeachment managers – and it could increase on Thursday if the impeachment managers try to “relitigate” the point like Schumer, DN.Y ., said it can happen.
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As the impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Was preparing to end the House of the Day arguments, Lee asked to be recognized and said that the impeachment managers incorrectly described what happened when Trump called his phone in January 6. He asked that the statement, made by Rep. David Cicilline, DR.I., be removed from the trial records.
Senator Mike Lee, R-Utah, on Wednesday got into a fight with the House’s impeachment managers over a phone call that former President Trump made to his phone on January 6.
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“Statements were attributed to me moments ago by the House’s impeachment managers … related to the content of the conversations between … President Trump and Senator Tuberville. They were not made by me. They are not accurate and are contrary to the fact “said Lee.
“I propose … that they be deleted from the registry,” Lee continued.
Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Who is presiding over the impeachment trial, said Lee’s motion was not provided for in the rules. Lee then appealed the decision and requested a roll-call vote.
But Leahy’s statement about what the rule was was unclear and generated minutes of conversation about exactly what the Senate was about to vote on. Schumer called the Senate for a quorum call “as long as we resolve this”.
It appears that what Lee was objecting was related to a call that Trump would have made to Lee’s phone during the Capitol rebellion. In fact, the call was to Senator Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., And Lee handed his phone to Tuberville so he could speak to Trump.
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Cicilline said Lee said the content of the call was Trump asking Tuberville to further delay certification of election results. But Lee said he had never said such a thing.
In this July 14, 2020 archive photo, Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville speaks at a campaign event in Montgomery, Alabama. (AP Photo / Butch Dill, Archive)
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The story in Utah’s Deseret News of January 7 that broke the news of Trump’s call to Lee, which was for Tuberville, quotes Lee as explaining that the call happened. But it does not reveal the content of the connection between Trump and Tuberville. A CNN story published the following day states that Trump was trying to convince Tuberville to object more to the Electoral College, but does not cite that information to Lee or Tuberville.
Notably, however, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, also during the turmoil left a voice message with Lee in which he explicitly asked Tuberville to delay certification of election results. The recording of this voicemail was widely publicized, but there is no such record of the conversation between Tuberville and Trump.
“Tonight the administrators of the House’s impeachment made false statements characterizing Senator Lee’s account of a telephone conversation between President Trump and Senator Tuberville,” said a spokesman for Lee on Wednesday. “Senator Lee objected and asked for false statements to be removed from the records. House administrators agreed to withdraw those statements.”
Fox News contacted a Tuberville spokesman asking the senator to clarify the content of the Trump call.
After several minutes, the senators reached an agreement that would allow them to close the evening’s hearing. Lee withdrew his request for a vote appealing to Leahy’s decision and Schumer withdrew his quorum call, asking Raskin to make a statement.
In this image from the video, House impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Speaks during the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump in the Senate at the US Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, 10 February 2021.
(Senate Television via AP)
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“The impeachment manager, Mr. Cicilline, correctly and correctly quoted a newspaper report to which the distinguished senator objected. So we are happy to withdraw it, claiming that it is not true and we will withdraw it tonight, without any prejudice to the ability to resubmit, if possible, and then we could debate if we need to, “said Raskin.
He added that “it is a lot of noise for nothing” because the specific comment “is not critical” for the case.
“It’s not true,” Lee could be heard saying in the background as Raskin explained. “You are not the only one named as a witness here,” he said.
“We can rewire it tomorrow if necessary,” said Schumer, before ending Senate proceedings overnight.
Chad Pergram, Jason Donner and Marisa Schultz of Fox News contributed to this report.