quote:

When asked about meeting with each other, the lawyers and at least one senator gave conflicting accounts about the substance of the discussion.

David Schoen, one of Trump's attorneys, said the senators were trying to ensure they were "familiar with procedure," CNN reported. However, Cruz said they were discussing the legal team's arguments and providing feedback.

"We were discussing their strategy for tomorrow, and we were sharing our thoughts, in terms of where the argument was and where to go," Cruz told reporters Thursday.

He also said that while he thinks the verdict is already clear and that Trump will be acquitted, he wanted to make sure the former president had the best possible defense.

"I think it is always good for the trial to be conducted with the best arguments possible, and to the extent that I had any thoughts or insight on how to do so, I certainly wanted to share," Cruz said

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In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said 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.

McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and begged Trump to call them off.
Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.

The newly revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President's state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details have been previously reported and discussed publicly by McCarthy.

The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty.

"He is not a blameless observer, he was rooting for them," a Republican member of Congress said. "On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does."

Speaking to the President from inside the besieged Capitol, McCarthy pressed Trump to call off his supporters and engaged in a heated disagreement about who comprised the crowd. Trump's comment about the would-be insurrectionists caring more about the election results than McCarthy did was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington state, in a town hall earlier this week, and was confirmed to CNN by Herrera Beutler and other Republicans briefed on the conversation.

"You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at," Herrera Beutler, one of 10 House Republicans who voted last month to impeach Trump, told CNN.
"That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry."

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The Senate voted Saturday to allow for witnesses in former President Trump's second impeachment trial, a stunning development that could extend the proceeding.

House Democrats prosecuting the case called for a single witness to testify: Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who has hammered Trump for his actions after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6.

The move came after the nine impeachment managers had spent the previous two days meticulously detailing their case against Trump, and appeared ready to rest the case, setting up a potential Saturday vote on Trump's fate in the Senate.

But news reports emerging Friday night raised new questions about precisely when Trump knew the Capitol breach had occurred, and whether he knew that his own vice president, Mike Pence, was being targeted by the mob.

"Needless to say, this is an additional, critical piece of corroborating evidence further confirming the charges before you, as well as the president's willful dereliction of duty," lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said. "For that reason, and because this is the proper time to do so under the [Senate impeachment rules], we would like the opportunity to subpoena congresswoman Herrera [Beutler] regarding her communications with [Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy] and to subpoena her contemporaneous notes."

Raskin said the deposition could happen remotely by Zoom, and Democrats would request "an hour or less" of her time.

The idea was immediately rejected by Michael van der Veen, one of Trump's defense attorneys, who said he'd need more than 100 new witnesses to investigate the circumstances in question thoroughly.

He called on senators to reject the call for new evidence, accusing Democrats of trampling on Trump's right to due process. The single article of impeachment, he added, is for "incitement of insurrection," and therefore should ignore anything Trump did after the attack had already happened.

"It's about the incitement. It's not about what happened afterwards," he said.