Iran Press/ America: "The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people," McConnell said on the Senate floor, marking the first convening of the full Senate since the attack.
The GOP leader has told colleagues he hasn’t yet decided how he would vote on a House-passed article of impeachment against Trump.
His remark that the crowd was "fed lies" is a reference to baseless and debunked claims spread by Trump and members of his legal team and inner circle that widespread election fraud cost Trump a second term. Trump has not formally conceded the race to President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump told supporters gathered at a rally near the White House on Jan. 6, shortly before the mob stormed the Capitol, that "they rigged it like they have never rigged an election" and declared "we won this election and we won it by a landslide."
Several people died amid the riot on Jan. 6, including a Capitol Police officer who was injured while responding to the mob.
McConnell accused the rioters who breached the building of trying “to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”
Protesters overwhelmed the Capitol’s security while lawmakers were tallying the vote of the Electoral College to make Biden the 46th president of the United States.
The melee temporarily halted the final certification of Biden’s victory, with both chambers later reconvening to resume the count once the Capitol campus had been secured.
"We stood together and said an angry mob would not get veto power over the rule of law in our nation, not even for one night," McConnell said Tuesday.
Speaking against objections to the electoral votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania, McConnell argued on the Senate floor on Jan. 6 that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t even that close in the end.
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