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 helped provoke the swarms of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
Condemned statements in the Senate Chamber came as Kentucky Republican and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., worked to erase details about Trump’s impending impeachment process.
“The crowd was fed lies,” McConnell told the chamber, which two weeks earlier had been evacuated as riots invaded the building. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
The Republican Party leader established the direct link between the Republican president’s rhetoric and the January 6 revolt, which left five dead, the day before President-elect Joe Biden was sworn in as president.
McConnell has rejected pressure from Democrats to hold the impeachment trial before Trump leaves office, but has told colleagues he is undecided on whether Trump should be convicted in the Senate for inciting the riot.
Trump was ousted in the Democratic-led House last week in a 232-197 vote, with 10 Republicans voting in favor of the ouster.
Trump is the only president in U.S. history accused twice.
McConnell’s statements also suggested that other leaders claimed responsibility for the attack. Critics have called on some lawmakers, especially Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, to resign after opposing key state election results.
McConnell had congratulated Biden on his victory in mid-December, more than a month after the Nov. 3 election.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on McConnell’s latest statements.
Trump, who urged the crowd at a rally in front of the White House to “fight like hell” and head to the Capitol to cancel the 2020 election, has insisted that his statements just before the riot were ” totally adequate “.
In that speech, Trump repeated the incendiary and false claim that re-election had robbed him of widespread electoral fraud. He once again promised he would never concede to Biden and urged his supporters to go to the Capitol to “encourage” Republican lawmakers who had pledged to oppose the results.
“We probably won’t cheer so much for some of them because you’ll never recover our country weakly. You have to show strength and you have to be strong,” Trump said.
Many of his supporters who attended this rally walked directly through the National Mall to the Capitol, where a joint session of Congress had been convened to confirm the victory of the Biden Electoral College. Riot police broke barricades and lines of police officers and entered the Capitol, forcing Congress to hide. Among them was Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the event.
In his statements Tuesday, McConnell said that “the last time the Senate met, we had just recaptured the Capitol from the violent criminals who were trying to prevent Congress from doing our duty.”
“They tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific procedure of the first branch of the federal government, which they didn’t like,” McConnell said.
“But we continued. We stood together and said that an angry crowd will not get the veto power over the rule of law in our nation, not even one night. We certified the people’s choice for their 46th. president “.
McConnell also promised that Biden’s inauguration will be “safe and successful.” The inauguration will be significantly reduced compared to previous ceremonies due to the coronavirus pandemic and the threat of violence.
Following McConnell’s statements, Schumer said in the Senate floor that “Donald Trump should not be eligible to run for office ever again.”
“Healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability,” Schumer said.
“There will be an impeachment trial in the United States Senate, there will be a vote to convict the president for high crimes and misdemeanors, and if the president is convicted, there will be a vote on a ban on running again,” he said. dir Schumer. .
Trump, who has acknowledged the end of his only term without relinquishing Biden, has not called his successor or invited the Democratic president-elect to the White House before taking office.
Pence last week called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her and offer her assistance before she was sworn in.