- President Trump helped provoke the swarms of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor.
- “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people,” McConnell said.
- McConnell’s remarks came as he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hash out details on Trump’s impending impeachment trial.
Mardi 19 janvier 2021 ((rezonodwes.com))–
President Donald Trump helped provoke the swarms of his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.
The damning remarks on the Senate floor came as the Kentucky Republican and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., worked to hash out details on Trump’s impending impeachment trial.
“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell told the chamber, which two weeks earlier had been evacuated as rioters invaded the building. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
The GOP leader made the direct link between the Republican president’s rhetoric and the Jan. 6 riot, which left five dead, the day before President-elect Joe Biden was to be sworn in as the 46th president.
McConnell has rebuffed pressure from Democrats to hold the impeachment trial before Trump leaves office, but he has told colleagues that he is undecided on whether Trump should be convicted in the Senate for inciting the riot.
Trump was impeached in the Democrat-led House last week in a 232-197 vote, with 10 Republicans voting in favor of impeachment.
Trump is the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.
McConnell’s remarks also suggested that other leaders bore responsibility for the attack. Critics have called on some lawmakers, especially GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, to resign after they objected to key states’ electoral results.
McConnell had congratulated Biden on his victory in mid-December, more than a month after the Nov. 3 election.
source : CNN – CSPAN – CNBC
