The Democratic lawmaker who led the filing of the latest article of impeachment against President Trump spoke Sunday about the level of danger lawmakers faced from rioters during the Jan. 6 overtaking of the U.S. Capitol.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s “State of the Union,” that rioters wanted to murder both Vice President Pence and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calfi.), adding that lawmakers remember hearing chants of “Hang Mike Pence” from the invading rioters.
“You don’t need a six-month investigation to figure out what happened,” Raskin said of the Jan. 6 violence, adding, “There was an assassination party hunting for Nancy Pelosi.”
“They built a gallows outside of the Capitol of the United States,” Raskin said. “This was an attack on our country.”
Raskin went on to add that Republicans needed to show that there would be consequences for the rioters who were looking to commit violence against members of Congress, telling Tapper that the response to the attack “cannot be at the level of normal partisan push and pull.”
Trump, Raskin added, was holding an “insurrection tailgate party” at the White House for hours while lawmakers hid in secure areas during the attack.
The House last week voted to impeach Trump, making him the first president to ever be impeached twice. He now awaits a second Senate trial even as he prepares to leave office Wednesday morning.
A number of Republicans, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), have indicated that the are open to convicting the president. Should Trump be convicted, it would bar him from running for office again.