US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday explicitly blamed former US president Donald Trump for the riot at the US Capitol, saying that people were “fed lies,” and Trump and others “provoked” those intent on overturning US President Joe Biden’s election.
Ahead of Trump’s second impeachment trial, McConnell’s remarks were his most severe regarding the former president.
McConnell is setting a tone as Republicans weigh whether to convict Trump on the impeachment charge that is soon to be sent over from the House of Representatives: “Incitement of insurrection.”
Photo: AFP
“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
The Republican leader vowed a “safe and successful” inauguration of Biden yesterday at the Capitol, where final preparations were under way amid heavy security.
Trump’s last full day in office on Tuesday was also US senators’ first day back since the deadly Capitol siege and the House vote to impeach him for his role in the riots — an unparalleled time of transition as the Senate prepares for the second impeachment trial in two years and presses ahead with the confirmation of Biden’s Cabinet.
Three new Democratic senators-elect were yesterday set to be sworn into office, shortly after Biden’s inauguration, giving the Democrats the barest majority, a 50-50 Senate chamber.
US Vice President Kamala Harris was to swear them in and serve as an eventual tiebreaking vote.
The Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, are to take charge of the Senate as they launch a trial to hold the defeated president responsible for the siege, while also quickly confirming Biden’s Cabinet and being asked to consider passage of a sweeping new US$1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet sent the sole article of impeachment to the Senate, which would launch the trial, but said late on Tuesday on MSNBC that “it will be soon.”
Making the case for Trump’s conviction, Schumer said that the Senate needs to set a precedent that the “severest offense ever committed by a president would be met by the severest remedy provided by the constitution — impeachment,” and disbarment from future office.
McConnell and Schumer later on Tuesday conferred about how to balance the trial with other business, and how to organize the evenly divided chamber, a process that could slow all of the Senate’s business and delay the impeachment proceedings.
There were signs of an early impasse.
During their meeting, McConnell told Schumer he wants “rules concerning the legislative filibuster remain intact, specifically during the power share for the next two years,” the minority leader’s spokesman, Doug Andres, said.
Eliminating the Senate filibuster, a procedural move that requires a higher bar for legislation to pass, has been a priority for Democrats who are to be in control of the House, Senate and White House.
However, a spokesman for Schumer, Justin Goodman, said that the majority leader “expressed that the fairest, most reasonable and easiest path forward” was to adopt an agreement similar to a 2001 consensus between the parties, the last time the Senate was evenly divided, without “extraneous changes from either side.”
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