These questions dominated the final hours of the trial and nearly resulted in an effort by the impeachment administrators of the Chamber to open the case to new witness statements. Several Republicans said in public statements that Trump resisted calls from allies to cancel the protesters and that he launched a Twitter attack on Vice President Mike Pence while being removed from the Senate chamber.
Senate Democrats were surprised on Saturday morning when House impeachment administrators sought testimony from witnesses, resulting in a majority vote to call witnesses. But after negotiations between Democrats, the managers later relented and simply allowed a public statement by Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) To be recorded. Herrera Beutler said in a statement on Friday night that minority leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Told her that Trump denied his calls to forcefully cancel the protesters on January 6, initiating appeals for a more complete display of the evidence against the former president.
The decision to skip the live testimony left these details unconfirmed and ready to emerge after Trump is released from trial.
Democrats expressed hope that the evidence and emotional appeals they made during the trial would lead Republicans enough to condemn Trump – a result they said was necessary to prevent future violence. To defend their position, House managers showed graphic videos, including footage never seen before, showing the horrific and chaotic nature of the Capitol violence on January 6.
Trump’s defense team said that putting a former president on trial on impeachment charges was unconstitutional because the main remedy, removal from office, was no longer operative. But the Senate voted at the start of the trial to retain the authority of the chamber to carry out the proceedings, and a conviction would have prevented Trump from holding a future federal office.
The Trump lawyers’ argument, a minority view among constitutional experts, provided a way for Republicans to unite around an acquittal without explicitly defending Trump’s conduct, which most Republican Party senators criticized as unwise, but not impugnable.
Other Republicans said the House was unable to prove that Trump’s actions and comments contributed to the violence on Capitol Hill and that it did not meet legal standards of incitement.
McConnell, despite his vote to absolve Trump, flogged the former president in a statement after the trial, accusing him of being responsible for unleashing “terrorism” on Capitol Hill.
“They did this because they were fed wild falsities by the most powerful man on Earth, because he was angry that he lost an election,” said McConnell. “Many politicians sometimes make exaggerated comments … but that was different. This is different from what we saw. This was an intensified crescendo of conspiracy theories. “
Notably, McConnell also suggested that Trump may still face criminal responsibility for his actions, arguing that Trump “has not yet gotten away with anything”.
Michael van der Veen, one of Trump’s lawyers for the impeachment trial, rejected McConnell’s criticism, telling reporters, “We finished the fight in that room and put everything on the mat in this case. We won. Innocent.”
Lawmakers said the case against Trump was overwhelming; they argued that the hooligans took their word for it, acted on it, repeated it while attacking the Capitol and then summoned them in court when they faced trial.
In addition, senators who voted to punish Trump cited their failure to send aid to the Capitol until hours after it became clear that Congress had been overtaken by the violent insurrection and that Pence was in danger and was evacuated from the Senate chamber.
House managers and Trump’s lawyers signed an agreement to avoid testifying witnesses after both sides agreed to make a public statement by Herrera Beutler detailing her account of a phone call between Trump and McCarthy.
Herrera Beutler, who voted for Trump’s impeachment in the House, begged Pence and other Republicans to publicly tell their story – but on Saturday afternoon, when the absolution vote was approaching, no one else came forward.