Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump gather in front of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Probal Rashid | LightRocket | Getty Images
President Donald Trump and others sparked swarms of his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday.
“The crowd was fed with lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” said McConnell in the Senate floor, which two weeks earlier had been evacuated after the crowd of protesters stormed the building.
McConnell’s remarks, R-Ky., Came as he and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. worked to discuss the details of Trump’s impending impeachment trial. Trump was impeached in the Democratic-led House last week in a 232-197 vote, with 10 Republicans voting in favor of impeachment.
Trump is the only president in the history of the United States who has been impeached twice.
The Republican Party leader made the direct link between the Republican president’s rhetoric and the January 6 riot, which left five dead, the day before President-elect Joe Biden took office as 46th president.
McConnell rejected pressure from Democrats to carry out the trial before Trump stepped down, but told colleagues he is undecided whether Trump should be convicted in the Senate for inciting the riot.
McConnell’s comments also suggested that other leaders were responsible for the attack. A growing chorus of critics has appealed to some lawmakers, especially the GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, to resign after opposing the election results of major states.
McConnell had 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 comments.
Trump, who urged the crowd at a rally outside the White House to “fight like hell” and head to the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election, insisted that his comments just before the riot were “entirely appropriate”.
In that speech, Trump repeated the incendiary and false claim that he had been robbed of reelection for widespread electoral fraud. He again promised that he would never make concessions to Biden and urged his supporters to go to the Capitol to “cheer” on Republican lawmakers who vowed to object to the results.
“We are probably not going to root so hard 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,” said Trump.
Many of his supporters who attended the rally crossed the National Mall to the Capitol, where a joint session of Congress had met to confirm the victory of the Biden Electoral College. Protesters broke through barricades and lines of police and entered the Capitol, forcing Congress to hide. Among them was Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the event.
After McConnell’s comments, Schumer said on the Senate floor that “Donald Trump shouldn’t be eligible to run for office again.”
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and responsibility,” said Schumer.
“There will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate, there will be a vote on the president’s conviction for serious crimes and misdemeanors, and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote to prevent him from running again,” said Schumer.
Trump, who acknowledged the end of his term without giving in to Biden, did not call his successor, nor did he invite him to the White House before his inauguration.
Pence called vice president-elect Kamala Harris last week to congratulate her and offer her help before she takes office.
These are breaking news. Please check again for updates.