Marjorie Taylor Greene threatens fellow Republican congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler for revealing Trump's call to McCarthy and throwing impeachment trial into chaos saying '75 million are watching'
Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out at fellow GOP Representative Jamie Herrera Beutler on Saturday for turning on the Republican Party, calling her 'the gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats.'
Taylor Greene is specifically referencing Herrera revealing details this week of a January 6 phone conversation between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former president Doanld Trump.
'First voting to impeach innocent President Trump, then yapping to the press and throwing @GOPLeader under the bus, and now a tool as a witness for the Democrats running the circus trial,' Taylor Greene tweeted on Saturday. 'The Trump loyal 75 million are watching.'
Only 10 Republican congressmen and women voted to impeach Trump last month – exactly one week after the Capitol attack.
Taylor Greene, who famously was booted from her committee assignments earlier this month for pushing QAnon conspiracies, said the impeachment is a 'sham.'
'Another sham impeachment trial WITHOUT evidence is happening in the Senate,' Taylor Greene lamented on Twitter Saturday.
She instead, called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
'We should have a real impeachment in the House,' Taylor Greene said. 'Joe Biden is compromised by our enemies. Our national security is at stake.'
Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out at fellow GOP Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler for first voting to impeach Donald Trump last month, and now revealing details of a call between the former president and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on January 6
'The gift that keeps on giving to Democrats': Greene says Herrera Beutler is acting as a 'tool' for Democrats in the impeachment against Trump
Herrera Beutler (pictured) told the press about McCarthy telling Trump about hearing gunshots outside the House chamber during a call between the two in the day of the Capitol storming
McCarthy reportedly briefed a number of GOP lawmakers on the call after the fact
Lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin piggy-backed off of a bombshell CNN report Friday which reveals details Herrera Beutler said she knew about a phone call between McCarthy and Trump on the day of the Capitol insurrection.
Raskin used that new information to make a surprise argument for calling witnesses as the fifth impeachment trial day kicked off Saturday morning.
The move to call witnesses was approved in a vote, along with support from five Republican, but Democrats quickly dropped the initiative after the GOP threatened to call more than 300 witnesses.
McCarthy told then-President Trump during a phone call in the midst of the Capitol storming on January 6 that he heard gunfire outside the House chamber.
ABC News' Jonathan Karl reported Saturday that McCarthy had made a specific reference to shots being fired as he encouraged Trump to call off the MAGA mob.
In particular, the impeachment prosecution team wanted to hear more from Herrera Beutler, who went public with what she knew about the call between McCarthy and Trump according to a briefing the GOP leader gave to lawmakers after the fact.
'For that reason and because this is the proper time to do so under the resolution the Senate adopted to set the rules for the trial we would like the opportunity to subpoena Congresswoman Herrera regarding her communications with the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and to subpoena her contemporaneous notes that she made regarding what President Trump told Kevin McCarthy in the middle of the insurrection,' Raskin told the Senate audience.
Jamie Raskin made the surprise announcement Saturday morning that the House Democratic impeachment managers wished to call witnesses, mainly Herrera Beutler
The House impeachment managers shared some of the CNN story sharing details of the call from Herrera's perspective
'We will be prepared to proceed by Zoom deposition of an hour or less just as soon as Congresswoman Herrera Beutler is available and to then proceed to the next phase of the trial, including the introduction of that testimony shortly thereafter,' he added.
The new twist to Trump's impeachment trial, which was expected to conclude Saturday, came after CNN reported Friday night new details about the call.
CNN said 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.
Herrera Beutler, a Washington state Republican who voted in favor of Trump's impeachment, mentioned Trump's comments to McCarthy during a town hall this week.
She later confirmed the exchange to CNN.
'You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at,' Herrera Beutler said. 'That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry.'
'We should never stand for that, for any reason, under any party flag,' the lawmaker continued. 'I'm trying really hard not to say the F-word.'
And she again stood by her account in a Twitter statement on Friday evening.
She wrote: When McCarthy finally reached the President on January 6 and asked him to publicly and forcefully call off the riot, the president initially repeated the falsehood that it was antifa that had breached the Capitol. McCarthy refuted that and told the president that these were Trump supporters. That's when, according to McCarthy, the president said: 'well I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'
'To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here now would be the time.'
Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who voted to impeach Trump, told CNN that he believes the exchange 'speaks to the former President's mindset.'
'He was not sorry to see his unyieldingly loyal vice president or the Congress under attack by the mob he inspired. In fact, it seems he was happy about it or at the least enjoyed the scenes that were horrifying to most Americans across the country,' Gonzalez said.
During Friday's impeachment trial, Trump's lawyers tried to deny the president even knew that individuals like Vice President Mike 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 Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama saying that on a call he had with Trump during the insurrection he mentioned that Pence was being whisked away to a secure location.
After Friday's proceedings, Tuberville told reporters he stood by his account.
Tuberville's testimony or his phone records could also be requested by the Democratic impeachment managers.
No comments