Saturday, 13 February 2021_Donald Trump engaged in a heated argument with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy when he implored the former president to call off the rioters as they were besieging the US Capitol, according to sources briefed on the matter.
In an expletive-laden phone call on January 6 as the Capitol assault was unfolding, McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and pleaded with the then-president to call them off.
Trump refused to do so and instead argued that 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, CNN reported on Friday night.
Trump’s comment triggered what congressional Republicans familiar with the call described as a “shouting match,” in which McCarthy also told Trump his supporters were breaking into his office through the windows.
The newly revealed details of the phone call provide critical insight into Trump’s state of mind as rioters were storming the Congress building. The former president is currently in the middle of his second impeachment trial on a charge of inciting an “insurrection.”
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