One of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the deadly Capitol attack insisted that the former president was consigned to the political past, even though Trump attracted headlines with a Senate race endorsement in his attempt to control the GOP.
Tom Rice of South Carolina told the New York Times he was on the circus. Some people are afraid of clowns. I am not afraid of clowns.
He is in the past. I think if he runs again, he hurts the Republican party. We need someone who can bring people together. He is not that guy. Trump this week called Rice a rebubbing Rino an acronym for Republican in Name Only and said he lifted up his hand and that was the end of his political career or we hope it was. Rice and nine other House Republicans voted to impeach Trump for inciting the attack on Capitol, an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden's election victory, a bipartisan Senate committee linked to seven deaths.
When only seven Republican senators found him guilty, Trump was acquitted, leaving him free to run for the White House again. He strongly suggested that he will.
The House committee investigating the January 6 riot held a public hearing on Thursday night. Twenty million Americans saw a dramatic presentation, marshaled by Liz Cheney of Wyoming, another anti-Trump Republican, of evidence and testimony meant to show that Trump caused the attack.
Rice told the Times : "To me, his gross failure was when it started. He watched it happen. He reveled in it. He took no action to stop it. He had a duty to try to stop it, and he failed in that duty. He said he did it when he voted to impeach. I will do it tomorrow. I will do it the next day or the day after that. I have a duty to uphold the constitution. That is what I did. Rice faces a tough primary against Russell Fry, a state representative endorsed by Trump.
The Senate primary dominated the matter of Trump's endorsement in another southern state, Alabama. On Friday, Trump endorsed Katie Britt, confirming his decision to un-endorse his previous choice, Mo Brooks, a congressman who was deeply involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Britt was the chief of staff to the retiring Republican senator Richard Shelby. On Friday, Trump called her an incredible fighter for the people of Alabama. That was another blow to Brooks, who tried to regain Trump's endorsement after it was withdrawn in March.
Mo has been wanting it back, but I can't give it to him, Trump said. Katie Britt is a fearless America First Warrior. Brooks has campaigned under the label Maga Mo, a reference to Trump's campaign slogan Make America Great Again.
Brooks spoke at a rally near the White House on 6 January 2021, before Trump spoke. Trump told supporters to fight like hell to overturn his defeat, which according to his big lie was caused by electoral fraud. Trump accused the far-right congressman of going woke for saying it was time to move on from litigating the 2020 election, despite his endorsement of Brooks.
On Friday, Brooks said: Let s just admit that Trump sometimes endorses the wrong people.