A Few GOP Senators Seem to Have Been Affected by Horrific Safety Footage of Capitol Coup – and Some Not at All
For those who found Tuesday’s videos of the Trump insurgent insurgent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6 disturbing or difficult to see, many seem to be saying that Wednesday’s videos were even more difficult to watch.
The videos, never seen before by surveillance cameras of the attack on the building and hundreds of Capitol police officers, reveal how close the domestic terrorists have come to contact with the vice president and the House Speaker – the second and third elected officials in accordance with the presidency and Senate legislators.
Politico Congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio said Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Kirsten Gillibrand “looked the other way” during the footage of metropolitan police officer Daniel Hodges being struck down by the insurgents.
But some Republicans were also emotionally affected.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, told CNN’s Manu Raju, “I don’t see Donald Trump get re-elected to the presidency” after the videos were shown in the Senate trial if the senators don’t vote to ban him from running for office. She also told him, “the evidence that has been presented so far is pretty damned.”
Desiderio also says Oklahoma’s GOP Senator James Lankford was “incredibly shaken after the last video of Officer Hodges was put down. Myself and other reporters in the chamber watched Lankford seem to get tears in his eyes. Sen. Daines (R-Mont.) Comforted him and held his arm. “
Senator Lankford later said of his reaction: “It’s painful to see … Who in God’s name thinks, ‘I’m going to show I’m right by crashing into the Capitol’? Who would do that? “https://t.co/G5QRZrhF7R
– Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) February 10, 2021
And one nameless GOP senator admitted that they hope all Americans have seen today’s videos.
Senator Angus King told @MSNBC, a Republican senator, not one of the six who voted to move the process forward, telling him, “I hope everyone in the country sees this.”
– Kyle Griffin (@ kylegriffin1) February 10, 2021
But not all Republicans were affected.
“I have nothing for you now,” Senator John Cornyn told CNN’s Raju, who says the Texas Republican is usually very “talkative.”
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson appeared to be in total denial of Trump’s complicity.
GOP Senator Ron Johnson would not tell me that Trump was responsible for what happened on January 6th, but would point out the rioters and say, “I hold these people responsible.” He added, “These are not the Trump supporters I know.”
– Manu Raju (mkraju), February 10, 2021
Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, a die-hard Trump, was unaffected.
Blunt: “I don’t know what the other side of Seattle, Portland and other places will show, but you will see similar tragedies there too.”
– Manu Raju (mkraju), February 10, 2021
How was Senator Mike Braun from Indiana – Mike Pence’s home state:
Several GOP senators make it clear that they see the footage as chilling and are shocked by what they saw – but they won’t change their plans to vote for the acquittal
“Just like I was before,” Senator Mike Braun told me when asked if he was shocked.
– Manu Raju (mkraju), February 10, 2021
It’s hard to judge, Braun added, “If you think the process is flawed at all.”
The Senate voted 55-45 that the process was not flawed and that the Senate was responsible for examining the case. Senators are jurors and swear an oath of “impartial justice”. As a juror, Braun cannot decide whether the “process is flawed” or not because the Senate did not say so.
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) called the trial Tuesday a waste of time.
“This is a complete waste of time,” Scott said on NBC News. “It doesn’t do anything to help American families, it doesn’t help people get jobs, it doesn’t help get the vaccine out … it’s vengeful.”
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