Former President Donald Trump’s Senate Trial Chamber administrators defended his decision not to call witnesses to testify, with one insisting they were not necessary because members of the chamber lived the Capitol riots last month.
Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) Was asked ABC Week “This Week” if she and other Democrats prosecuting the case against Trump “fell” in asking for testimony Saturday, right after a vote that would allow them to do just that.
“Not at all,” he said. “We didn’t need any more witnesses. America was a witness. We were in a room full of witnesses and victims. We no longer needed more witnesses.”
He noted that Democrats were able to receive a statement from Republican Party Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler on the phone call from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy with Trump on Jan. 6 admitted to the evidence register.
Another manager, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands said the result was to get Herrera Beutler to recall her conversation with McCarthy on the record, adding that Republican senators were unlikely to have voted to condemn Trump anyway.
“I know people feel a lot of anguish and I think maybe if we had (a witness) the senators would have done what we wanted, but listen, we didn’t need more witnesses, we needed more senators with thorns,” he told State of the Union “of CNN.
Herrera Beutler said McCarthy told him he had implored the former president to overthrow his supporters after they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, sending lawmakers in a hurry for his safety.
He said Trump told the Republican leader, “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you.”
The Senate voted 55-45 to call witnesses after Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House’s chief executive, tried to summon Herrea Beutler to testify, a process that could have delayed the trial in the Senate for weeks.
But then House officials and Trump’s legal team drew up an agreement in order to admit his statement as evidence.
Herrera Beutler was one of ten House Republicans who voted with Democrats to accuse Trump on Jan. 13.
Dean said the “stipulation” of the former president’s lawyers provided the truth of Herrera Beuter’s statement.
“I didn’t go into the registry, witnessing more of the high crime and insurrection incited by a president,” Dean said.
The Senate acquitted Trump by a 57-43 vote in the House accused of “inciting insurrection. Seven Republicans voted with Democrats to condemn, but the margin was less than the 67 needed to condemn.