When exactly former President Trump
Donald Trump Capital Police Votes Distrust of Leaders Graham’s Post-Election Call with Georgia Secretary of State Will Be Investigated: Trump Report Told McCarthy Rioters Are ‘More Upset About the Elections Than You’: Report MORE became aware that the Capitol had been violated on Jan. 6 and is coming under increasing scrutiny from key GOP senators as they consider whether to vote to condemn him.
Emphasis on Trump’s actions came into sharper focus as part of an hour-long question-and-answer session on Friday, just a day before the Senate votes on whether he is guilty of “ serious crimes and crimes ” for “ deliberate incitement to violence against the United States government. “
Four of the six GOP senators considered possible swing votes sought to gain new insight into when Trump found out the Capitol had been violated and how he responded, underscoring how it has become a major issue for the handful of undecided Republican senators.
“The real problem is what the president intended, right?” said Sen. Bill Cassidy
Bill Cassidy Tuberville Defends Account Of Trump Call During Capitol Riot The Memo: GOP Senators Facing Controlling Vote Over Trump Cassidy’s Office Says He Outweighs Trump Vote Decision (R-La.), One of the four senators. “Only the president could answer that and the president chose not to testify.”
GOP Sens. Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins The Memo: GOP Senators Facing Casting Vote Over Trump Trump Lawyers Say Former President Didn’t Know Pence Was In Danger on Capitol Key GOP Senators Question When Trump Knew Capitol Was Violated MORE (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski
Lisa Ann MurkowskiThe Memo: GOP Senators Faces Casting Vote Over Trump OVERNIGHT POWER: Court Ignores Trump’s Move to Open 10 Million Acres to Mining | Treasury Reportedly Adds Climate Tsar | Manchin pushes natural gas in letter to Biden Key GOP senators asking when Trump knew Capitol was being violated MORE (Alaska) asked what “specific actions” Trump took after learning of the Capitol breach, urging Trump’s legal team to be “as specific as possible.”
Collins and Sen. Mitt Romney
Willard (Mitt) Mitt Romney The Memo: GOP Senators Stand For Casting Vote For Trump Lawmakers Give Standing Ovation For Officer Eugene Goodman Senate Approves Bill To Award Capitol Police Officer Congressional Gold Medal MORE (R-Utah) also asked if Trump knew that then Vice President Pence had been expelled from the Senate Chamber for his security when Trump tweeted in part at 2:24 PM that “Mike Pence
Michael (Mike) Richard Pence Trump attorneys say the former president did not know Pence was in danger on Senators’ Capitol Key GOP question when Trump knew Capitol was being violated The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Trump’s Lawyers Open Oral Arguments, hoping to reset MORE did not have the courage to do what should have been done “after Trump’s attempts to get his vice president to intervene in the electoral college count.
Trump’s lawyers couldn’t say when Trump specifically found out that a crowd had breached the Capitol, but said it was before 2:38 p.m., based on Trump’s tweets. But they denied he knew Pence was in danger.
“The answer is no,” Trump attorney Michael Van Der Veen said on the Senate floor. “At no point did the president communicate that the vice president was in danger.”
The questions provide a rare insight into what topics potential swing vote senators are still weighing in after four days of opening arguments and as the trial is about to end on Saturday.
The responses did not seem to satisfy both Collins and Murkowski.
“It was like, ‘Hold on, that didn’t react very much,’ Murkowski said. “I thought it was a better try a second time, but yeah, I didn’t really feel like it responded to our question.”
Collins added, “I didn’t really feel like I was getting a response, but I’m not sure that was the counsel’s fault.” She said “it is difficult to answer such a question” after Parliament refused to hold hearings to establish certain basic facts.
“I was hoping one side or the other would have it because I think it’s a really important question when the president knew the barricades had been broken,” she said.
In another warning sign for Trump’s legal team, Cassidy – who has come forward for an 11-hour swing vote – posed another question that answered a revelation this week from Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), Who says he told it. Trump that Pence had been removed from the Senate Chamber.
Senator Tuberville reports that he spoke with President Trump at 2:15 pm. He told the president that the vice president has just been evacuated. I assumed it was understood at the time that rioters had entered the Capitol and endangered the safety of senators and the vice president, ”Cassidy wrote in his question.
Cassidy then noted in his question that Trump subsequently tweeted that Pence was “ lacking courage ” and had not called for support from the police at the time.
“The tweet and lack of response suggest President Trump didn’t care that Vice President Pence was in danger or that law enforcement was overwhelmed,” Cassidy continued in his question.
How Cassidy could ultimately vote in the impeachment trial is increasingly under scrutiny after he sided with senators who called the trial constitutional this week.
He was the only one of the six senators who voted to advance that earlier attempt by Sen. Rand Paul
Randal (Rand) Howard Paul Come on, Republicans – Trump turned on the crowd, and it’s clear how he did it Majority of Kentuckians disapprove of McConnell’s job in the Senate Senate Panel Advances Biden’s Education and Labor Secretary MORE (R-Ky.) Late last month to declare proceedings against the former president unconstitutional.
But Trump’s team said they rejected the premise of Cassidy’s question, arguing that it was based on Tuberville’s “ rumors. ”
“I dispute the premise of your facts,” Van Der Veen told Cassidy.
Tuberville unintentionally raised questions about when Trump knew Pence was in danger this week. He announced to reporters on Wednesday that he had informed Trump, who called him during the attack, that Pence had been removed from the room.
Tuberville told reporters Friday night that he was behind his bill. He pressed if the call came at 2:15 p.m., saying he wasn’t sure of the exact timing, but the call happened as he said.
[I] answered it [and] it was the president. He said a few things. I said ‘Mr. President, they took out the vice president. They want me on the line, I have to go, ” said Tuberville.
Pence was evacuated from the room at 2:13 p.m. and the Senate chamber closed at around 2:15 p.m., according to a January 6 pool report from Washington Post reporter Paul Kane who was hiding in his place in the room.
Cassidy’s question caught the attention of other senators, who called it a highlight of the hour-long session.
Romney – the only GOP senator to vote for one of the impeachment articles against Trump last year – called Cassidy “in a more detailed way, and that clarified their answers,” before asking the question.
But Cassidy said he was unhappy with the response.
‘I mean, it clearly wasn’t rumors. Tuberville was there, ”said Cassidy. “I didn’t think it was a very good answer.”