Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville revealed on Wednesday that he was on the phone speaking to Donald Trump as the mob closed in on the Capitol and he notified the ex-President that Mike Pence was being evacuated from the Senate chamber.
“I said ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,’” Tuberville told Politico.
Though the call was previously reported, the public was not aware that Tuberville had told Donald Trump that his vice-president was being evacuated because he was in danger.
The Tuberville call was just one example House impeachment managers use to show that Trump remained fixated on stopping Biden’s victory even as it became clear that a mob devoted to him was ransacking the Capitol. Trump, they said, did nothing to publicly call off the rioters and instead called Tuberville to continue his effort to stop the transition of power, Politico noted.
According to House impeachment managers, the call between Trump and Tuberville took place shortly after 2 p.m. Pence was evacuated from the chamber at about 2:15 p.m. and Trump sent his tweet attacking Pence at 2:24 pm. The entire Senate was cleared by about 2:30pm.
That means, Trump’s tweet attacking Mike Pence for not having the “courage” to overturn the election was sent after he was aware that the vice-president and his family were in grave danger in the Capitol as his supporters stormed the building chanting, “hang Mike Pence”.
Prior to Tuberville’s admission it was unclear when exactly Trump knew of his VP’s plight. Now, House impeachment managers have a better idea of the moment Trump knew an angry mob of his supporters were looking for Pence, and he did nothing.
