Four GOP Senators were trying to find out exactly what the president knew and when he knew it, during the question and answer session of the impeachment trial yesterday.
Cassidy, Collins, Murkowski, and Romney all tried to gain new insight into when Trump found out the Capitol had been breached and how he responded.
Collins and Murkowski asked for specific actions the president took after learning of the breach, while Collins and Romney asked if the president knew of Pence being removed from the Capitol.
Trump’s lawyers were unable to say when specifically Trump found out that a mob had breached the Capitol but said that, based on Trump’s tweets, it was before 2:38 p.m. But they denied that he knew that Pence was in danger.
The responses given by the defense did not seem to satisfy the GOP Senators.
Collins added that, “I didn’t really feel that I got a response, but I’m not sure that that was the fault of the counsel.” She said “it’s difficult to answer a question like that” after the House declined to hold hearings to establish certain basic facts. “I was hoping that one side or the other would have, because I think it’s a very important question of when did the president know that the barricades were breached,” she said.
Bill Cassidy homed in on the phone call to Tommy Tuberville who said he told the president that Pence had been removed from the Senate floor.
“Senator Tuberville reports that he spoke to President Trump at 2:15 p.m. He told the president that the vice president has just been evacuated. I presumed it was understood at the time that rioters had entered the Capitol and threatened the safety of senators and the vice president,” Cassidy wrote in his question. Cassidy, in his question, then noted that Trump subsequently tweeted that Pence “lacked courage,” and hadn’t at that point called for law enforcement back up. “The tweet and lack of response suggests President Trump did not care that Vice President Pence was endangered or that law enforcement was overwhelmed,” Cassidy continued in his question.
Cassidy’s question caught the attention of other GOP Senators.
See the whole story at The Hill.