The impeachment trial of Donald Trump could wrap up today, most likely with an acquittal. But Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington has thrown a monkey wrench in the works. She one of the 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment in January, and she’s doing what she can to force the Senate to convict.
In a statement on Friday night, Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, Republican of Washington, recounted a phone call relayed to her by Mr. McCarthy of California, the minority leader, in which Mr. Trump was said to have sided with the rioters, telling the top House Republican that members of the mob who had stormed the Capitol were “more upset about the election than you are.”
This isn’t the first time Herrera Beutler has recounted this story, as she explained in a Friday night Tweet.
Some elements of this have been reported before. In a comprehensive Politico Magazine piece on the last days of the Trump administration published on Inauguration Day, it was reported that the ex-president watched the Capitol invasion “unfold on television in the private dining room off the Oval Office, seemingly oblivious to the dangers of an armed mob loose inside the halls of the Capitol.” Numerous people pleaded with him to intervene, including McCarthy who called “and ‘begged’ Trump to put out a stronger statement.”
Yet, as McCarthy apparently recounted to several colleagues, including Herrera Beutler, Trump initially tried to argue that antifa was responsible for the violence and then defended the rioters as more committed to his cause than the House Minority Leader.
CNN takes it from here:
“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump’s supporters and begged Trump to call them off.Trump’s comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, “Who the f–k do you think you are talking to?” according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.
In a tweet late Friday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) suggested deposing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), as a way to shed light on how much Trump knew about what was unfolding at the Capitol and whether he realized how much danger Vice President Mike Pence faced that day.
“What did Trump know, and when did he know it?” Whitehouse wrote.
In a tweet Saturday morning, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) agreed, writing: “Senator Whitehouse nailed it.”
In addition to McCarthy and Tuberville, they’ll probably want to talk to Mike Pence’s aide Marc Short who called White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to inform him that Pence was being evacuated. Many outlets, including the Daily Caller, reported on January 6 that Trump had ordered Short barred from the White House grounds.
There seems to be widespread agreement that Trump’s biggest vulnerability with Republican senators is his treatment of Pence. Trump’s lawyers insisted on Friday that that he had never been aware of the danger Pence was in, but this is not plausible. Tuberville says he told the then-president that he had to get off their phone call because Pence was being evacuated. We know Short informed Meadows about it. Many knowledgable people have stated that the president’s Secret Service detail would have been apprised of all Pence’s movements. Yet, Trump chose to Tweet out an attack on Pence after he’d been informed of all this.
The importance of the McCarthy call is that it gets to Trump’s state of mind.
I think there’s a good chance that some of these witnesses will be called. But we will know shortly and I will update this piece.
[UPDATE] I got it partly right. The House Managers asked for and received permission to have Herrera Beutler as a witness. But, faced with the prospect of the defense calling dozens of witnesses, they backed down and took a deal in which Herrera Beutler’s statement would be accepted as evidence. This allowed them to move to four hours of final arguments, after which Trump was found guilty by 57 of the 100 senators. Therefore, because a two-thirds majority was required for conviction, Trump was acquitted.
If they’re seriously going to just let this opportunity go by having Rep. Beutler’s statement entered into the record what is the point of this whole exercise. We already all knew it was a sham of sorts, but that vote for witnesses provided an excellent opportunity to do “something”. Put it into a committee to investigate for 3 months in coordination with the FBI… call all the 301 witnesses who the defense wanted to call… and every Representative, Senator, staffer, capitol hill police officer. And call Trump, and every single person who spoke or organized any aspect of the rally, or any other event scheduled that day. The last 25 years have been extremely frustrating to watch.
I apparently had more to say on this topic…
How can I take the Democratic party seriously anymore!? I’ve had my doubts about our electoral process for a long time… I think every election after the following events are possibly questionable (in the order where you can stop when you think it’s gone too far):
1. Clinton’s second election in 1996 because the one after that was decided by the SC and all after are “questionable”
2. Carter’s election in 1976 because the Reagan administration colluded with Iran (aware my source isn’t awesome)
3. LBJ’s election in 1964 because Nixon colluded with the North Vietnamese to sabotage peace talks
I’ve thought it might be an interesting exercise to see if one could take this sort of analysis all the way back to the beginning of the republic and discover that the whole thing is a sham all the way back… but that feels a bit too cynical.
I want to believe that we have a democracy here… but it’s getting harder and harder.
Happy Saturday!
Been in a multitude of 8th grade classrooms, and got the same excuses from them: I didn’t do anything, everybody is doing it and I always get blamed, it’s not my fault, you’re picking on me, they did it first, look what they’re doing over there, and I didn’t know it was wrong.They left out some doozies: it’s all about me, the Democrat Party is just being politically correct (cancel culture?). To RepubliCons I say: Grow Up! It’s never too late. All these cheap excuses from the “adults in the room” – the party of personal responsibility, the “tough on crime” party of law and order, of family values, of character, the values voters, the real Americans, the true patriots, and my favorite, we will run government like a business. Raises an interesting conundrum for us all: are they lying to us or lying to themselves? Either, or both, and what would be worse? We’re stuck with a well financed bunch of professional liars who are either evil or corrupt. In a way, it’s probably lucky that Trump was both, or he might have been even more dangerous.
they folded. What a surprise. This is why i didn’t watch, why get my hopes up only to get angry?
It was a lost opportunity. The Senate floor should have been effectively turned into the set of No Exit. No one able to close their eyes or look away as the GOP leaders and members are forced to face the years of what they have cultivated. The evidence made public would have been valuable. And maybe the outcome would not have changed, but there would be no cover of ignorance to hide behind.
I’m not sure about that. Maybe I missed it but what was the purpose behind driving the mob into the Capitol? The dems needed to make something of that and never really did, but then I may have missed it. Maybe the feds will do so now.
So it looks like I was wrong on Mitch, but right that the final vote would be higher than those who believed it unconstitutional, for the reason that the Senate has the power to decide and it decided. I don’t really care about witnesses. We all saw what happened with our own two eyes. There’ll be plenty of time for investigating in house and Senate committees in due course. For now, I can say they should remove the impeachment clause from the constitution. It’s been shown to be a waste of time. No one will ever be impeached and convicted, ever. It’s over. A replacement mechanism should be found.
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, calling witnesses and making Republicans fully own their votes would be satisfying. On the other hand, GOP senators are going to hide behind the procedural issue no matter what and the vote totals won’t change. I’m not sure it’s possible to change public opinion at this point, though it sure would have been good to see if McCarthy and Tuberville lied under oath.
Trouble is, there’s a lot of work to be done and the Republicans would have frozen the Senate. Would it really be worth it? We have reconciliation to do, appointees to ratify, judiciary appointments. Within the next year, I’d like to see Democrats do what they can to strengthen the ACA and take on prescription drug prices. I could imagine McConnell and company gumming up the works for weeks or months. And at the end of the day, for what? Heck, if we somehow convinced them to convict Trump, we’d probably be doing them a favor.
I agree. Herrera Beutler’s testimony would have been hearsay and I don’t think it would have been as powerful as some think it would have been. McCarthy and others with direct knowledge of the conversation would not come forward; in fact, McCarthy probably would have submitted a counter-affidavit disavowing Beutler’s testimony. In the end, it wouldn’t have garnered any additional votes to convict.