Washington (CNN)In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the US Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.
"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.
The newly revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President's state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details were first reported by Punchbowl News and discussed publicly by McCarthy.
The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty.
"He is not a blameless observer. He was rooting for them," a Republican member of Congress said. "On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does."
Speaking to the President from inside the besieged Capitol, McCarthy pressed Trump to call off his supporters and engaged in a heated disagreement about who comprised the crowd. Trump's comment about the would-be insurrectionists caring more about the election results than McCarthy did was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington state, in a town hall earlier this week, and was confirmed to CNN by Herrera Beutler and other Republicans briefed on the conversation.
"You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at," Herrera Beutler, one of 10 House Republicans who voted last month to impeach Trump, told CNN. "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," she added, voicing her extreme frustration. "I'm trying really hard not to say the F-word."
Herrera Beutler went a step further Friday night, calling on others to speak up about any other details they might know regarding conversations Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence had on January 6.
"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," she said in a statement. Another Republican member of Congress said the call was problematic for Trump.
Aiden Ross
"I think it speaks to the former President's mindset," said Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who also voted to impeach Trump last month. "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."
As senators prepare to determine Trump's fate, multiple Republicans thought the details of the call were important to the proceedings because they believe it paints a damning portrait of Trump's lack of action during the attack. At least one of the sources who spoke to CNN took detailed notes of McCarthy's recounting of the call. Trump and McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.
It took Trump several hours after the attack began to eventually encourage his supporters to "go home in peace" -- a tweet that came at the urging of his top aides. At Trump's impeachment trial Friday, his lawyers argued that the former President did in fact try to calm the rioters with a series of tweets while the attack unfolded. But his lawyers cherry-picked his tweets, focusing on his request for supporters to "remain peaceful" without mentioning that he also attacked Pence and waited hours to explicitly urge rioters to leave the Capitol.
A source close to Pence said Trump's legal team was not telling the truth when attorney Michael van der Veen said at the trial that "at no point" did the then-President know his vice president was in danger.
Asked whether van der Veen was lying, the source said, "Yes." Former Pence aides are still fuming over Trump's actions on January 6, insisting he never checked on the vice president as Pence was being rushed from danger by his US Secret Service detail.
Leo Davis
It's unclear to what extent these new details were known by the House Democratic impeachment managers or whether the team considered calling McCarthy as a witness. The managers have preserved the option to call witnesses in the ongoing impeachment trial, although that option remains unlikely as the trial winds down. The House Republican leader had been forthcoming with his conference about details of his conversations with Trump on and after January 6.
Trump himself has not taken any responsibility in public.
Xavier Ramirez
>All these senators have to waste all this time listening to democrats lambaste them with evidence of the day trumps base tried to kill them >They figure out trump himself wanted the rioters there and encouraged it. He laughed, even when 5 PEOPLE DWERE KILLED ON THE PROPERTY >They have to spend a whole day in court now DEFENDING HiM, forced to say what he did was both not only OK, but was something that is absolutely not worth even talking about
This is some deep, creepy cuck shit. Imagine your new boss nearly killing you, insulting you to your face, and then you have to defend him in court and say it was ok. He wasn't even there, he got to stay at home watching tv.
How can anyone with a spine or a pair of balls be a republican at all
Ryder Perez
Republicans are nazis, willing to commit any atrocity out of fear of reprisal, desire to stay in power, or gain more power. It's not shocking that Trump could stage a violent coup that gets multiple people killed and Republicans still blindly support him.
Logan Sullivan
Mera lund
Evan Taylor
Why is this only coming out the moment the trial is over?
James Ortiz
Because the press is corrupt and in the pocket of the Republican party.
Gavin Powell
It was presented at the end as written evidence after the Democrats rolled over and compromised for some inexplicable reason to not call witnesses which would have further damned the spineless Republicant Senators to the lowest depths of Hell.
Noah Barnes
don't matter republicans are beyond morality
Thomas Sullivan
The witnesses they were going to call, such as Kevin McCarthy and Mark Meadows, did not want to participate.
Jose Gonzalez
Imagine being this retardedly delusional.
Like what the fuck have we been seeing beyond 24/7 anti-trump bullshit for the last four years? How far is your head up your ass?
Lincoln Jackson
Trump brought all of the anti-trump bullshit on himself through his criminal actions.
Luke Phillips
This, Trump wasn't a victim, he was an aggressor who brought everything bad that happened to him on himself. The question is how much criminal and civil litigation can he fight off. Because even if the Republicans betrayed their oath to America, rule of law is still in effect, and it tends to look down on treason. Plus there's the families of the cops his coup murdered, I'm sure they're preparing to sue the hell out of him.
James Cox
Dude. You know that you basically have huge neon signs around your posts right? >because you keep using the same phrases over and over and over
What percent of Dab Forums posts do you think you make? 40%? 50%?
Logan Sanders
>You know that you basically have huge neon signs around your posts right? He doesn't know this. And he keeps bumping his own shit threads.
Anthony Morris
>don't matter >republicans are beyond morality
Yea, they pay lip service to abortion, etc, but in the end, they are the one whom if the adrenochrome stuff were really harvested from dead kids, would do it.
The Gop draws evil people. Most voters don't know this, because the Devil whispers sweet lies.
Caleb Cook
absolutely seething
Christian Murphy
He's the magat that thinks there's only 3 people on Dab Forums: Himself; an atheist, commie, socialist, anarchist pedo Democrat; and some guy that types really fast.
Carson Kelly
>they are the one whom if the adrenochrome stuff were really harvested from dead kids, would do it.
Sounds like something someone who takes adrenochrome and covers up human trafficking would say.
Dylan Rivera
>witnesses which would have further damned the spineless Republicant Senators to the lowest depths of Hell.
As if they aren't already there lol
Witnesses wouldn't have made a difference. Republican senators wouldn't convict Trump if he fucked every single one of their mothers on television.
Aaron Russell
Because they're fascists. Why do you think they're so obsessed with antifa?
James Lopez
True. Presenting your asshole to be abused and exploited by the dear leader is quintessential far-right dogma. I'm convinced that fascism is just the political externalization of a humiliation fetish.
Leo Jones
It's really wild stuff, isn't it?
Some of the same people who have completely subsumed their will to this man were some of the first the raise the alarm to the dangers of his brand of authoritarian, populist bullshit.
But now they're all complete punks covering for him whenever he and his lunatics demand. Wild shit, man. The GOP belongs to the Trumps now. Not just Donald, but his children, too. They're "American royalty" to the supporters, now.
Lucas Sanders
>How can anyone with a spine or a pair of balls be a republican at all A whole lot of folks rather see the nation come to an end, than continue on this path... Which does eventually lead to a cliff, and, as per usual, the new drivers don't seem to realize that anymore than the old ones.
For such folks, it's not that they think Trump isn't bad for the nation, it's that they want him in charge, because they know he is.
