Democrat Senator says Trump's impeachment trial should be SUSPENDED so they can depose Kevin McCarthy over furious riot phone call and Tommy Tuberville over claims the president knew Pence was in danger
A Senate Democrat has called for the suspension of Donald Trump's impeachment trial in order to depose Senator Tommy Tuberville and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about their conversations with the former president during the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and one of the 100 jurors in the trial, issued the call in a tweet late on Friday, one day before the trial was expected to conclude in an acquittal.
'Tomorrow just got a lot more interesting,' Whitehouse wrote, referring to reports that McCarthy lambasted Trump in an expletive-laden diatribe telling him to call off his mob of loyalists, and following Tuberville's admission that he told Trump that Vice President Mike Pence was being evacuated from the Senate.
'What did Trump know, and when did he know it?' asked Whitehouse. 'One way to clear it up? Suspend trial to depose McCarthy and Tuberville under oath and get facts. Ask Secret Service to produce for review comms back to White House re VP Pence safety during siege.'
Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is presiding over the trial as president pro tempore of the Senate, after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts declined to participate.
Senate procedures do not place a time limit on impeachment trials, and the presiding officer of the trial has the power to direct the proceedings and rule on all questions of evidence. Leahy presumably has the power to halt the trial for depositions if they are requested by the House impeachment managers, who are acting as the prosecutors in the case.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and one of the 100 jurors in the impeachment trial, issued the call to suspend the proceedings in a tweet late on Friday, one day before the trial was expected to conclude in an acquittal
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, seen with Trump last year, reportedly had a phone shouting match with the former president on January 6, demanding that he act to call off the mob of his supporters attacking the Capitol
Senator Tuberville of Alabama said he told Trump that VP Mike Pence was being evacuated from the Senate
Whitehouse's call follows new bombshell details from a call between Trump and McCarthy show a president who was unwilling to call off his mob of supporters during the riot.
CNN reported Friday that Trump and McCarthy engaged in an expletive-laced shouting match during the riot, with the California Republican begging the president to rein in his supporters.
'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 by McCarthy.
McCarthy, who was described by CNN as 'furious,' yelled at Trump that the rioters were breaking his windows.
'Who the f**k do you think you are talking to?' the top House Republican yelled at the president of the United States.
CNN's sources were Republican members of Congress, who believed that the contents of the call prove that Trump had no interest in calling off the deadly riot.
'He is not a blameless observer, he was rooting for them,' one GOP unnamed lawmaker said. 'On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does.'
'This proves that the president knew very early on - what the mob was doing, and he knew members were at risk and he refused to act ... it's a violation of his oath of office to fail to come to this defense of Congress and the constitutional process immediately,' another GOP member familiar with the call told CNN.
Meanwhile, Tuberville's conversation with Trump is of interest to Democrats because Trump sent a tweet at 2.24pm on January 6 saying that Pence didn't have 'the courage' to challenge the election results.
If Tuberville's account is correct, then Trump would likely have known before sending the tweet that Pence had been evacuated and was in danger. At the time, the rioters had already broken into the Capitol, some of them calling for Pence's death.
New details about a call between President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (pictured) suggest Trump was unwilling to call off the MAGA mob, even yelling at the House's top Republican: 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are'
CNN's blockbuster report about the McCarthy call comes after Trump's lawyers laid out their case in the Senate impeachment trial. Trump's lawyers denied he knew people, like Vice President Mike Pence, were in harm's way
After Friday's proceedings, Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, stood by his account, paraphrasing his January 6 phone conversation with Trump.
'Mr. President, they've taken the vice president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go,' Tuberville recalled telling Trump during the Capitol attack.
However during Friday's impeachment trial, Trump's lawyers tried to deny the president even knew that individuals like Pence were in peril.
'The answer is no. At no point was the president informed the vice president was in any danger,' Trump's attorney Bruce Castor said, despite Tuberville's remarks.
On Friday night, Whitehouse said that Trump's attorneys were 'under ethics obligation' to clear up the record about what Trump knew on the day of the riot.
'You don’t get as counsel to make misrepresentations; if you do, you have an affirmative duty to clean it up,' wrote Whitehouse.
The Senate had been scheduled to hear closing arguments in the trial on Saturday, and was also expected to vote on conviction or acquittal -- but Whitehouse's proposal raised the possibility of a delay.
However, his proposal to depose McCarthy and Tuberville drew scorn from Republican strategist Matt Whitlock, who said it was too late in the process to depose new witnesses.
'This is exactly what the House was supposed to do before it got to a Senate trial,' Whitlock tweeted. 'You don’t suspend an impeachment trial to go back and redo the House’s job and investigate and collect sworn testimony. Compare to the first impeachment where they spent months building a case.'
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