Gov. Phil Scott made a cameo appearance Thursday during the U.S. Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
As he made the case that Trump had incited the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., cited Scott’s subsequent remarks condemning the former president. Lieu, a House impeachment manager, also pointed to similar criticism from other Republican officials, including Govs. Mike DeWine of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Spencer Cox of Utah, and Larry Hogan of Maryland.
“People in his own party — state officials, former officials, current officials, members of Congress — have all unambiguously and passionately said that what Donald Trump did was ‘disgraceful,’ ‘shameful,’ and have called his behavior ‘existential’ and ‘wrong,’” Lieu told senators Thursday afternoon.
“And they said that his actions gave rise to one of the darkest chapters in United States history,” Lieu continued, quoting from an address Scott delivered to lawmakers at the Vermont Legislature’s opening session on Jan. 7.
Impeachment managers then played a video that included the Republican governors criticizing Trump over the riots. The brief presentation ended with a portion of Scott’s January speech.
“Seeing our Capitol, a symbol of democracy around the world, stormed by an angry mob was heartbreaking. And let me be clear, these actions were not patriotic. And these people are not patriots,” Scott said.
“The fact that these flames of hate and insurrection were lit by the president of the United States will be remembered as one of the darkest chapters in our nation’s history,” he said.
Hours after the riots took place, Scott called on Trump to be removed from office — becoming the first Republican governor to do so.
