“I said ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,'” Tuberville (R-Ala.) told POLITICO on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night, saying he cut the phone call short amid the chaos.
Minutes later, Trump tweets:
"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify, USA demands the truth!"
Trump did not know who the “they” Tuberville was referring to were. Trump was not told, as the media reports, Pence “had been evacuated” or “removed.” Tuberville, by his own repeated admissions, said “they just took the vice president.”
How is Trump, watching the insurrectionist rioters with glee, to understand that? He expected these assholes to take Pence, kill him, Pelosi and others. Why is it assumed that Trump understands “they” to be Pence’s Secret Service detail? It is far more likely Trump believed his people, his summoned traitors, had taken Pence. Why would Trump tweet what he did if he believed Pence was under the safe protection of the Secret Service? Trump believed Pence was in the custody of his summoned traitors, being readied to stand before their treasonous kangaroo court.
Trump was explaining to his base why the VP was being tried for his capital crime. Trump was writing Pence’s eulogy.
Sunday, Feb 14, 2021 · 3:00:56 AM +00:00 · Ithinkoutloud
Today, Mike Lee provided to House Managers phone records that purportedly timestamp the call for Tuberville as having been received at 2:26 PM, two minutes after the Trump tweet about Pence’s lack of courage. That, along with the conflicting Trump defense lawyer’s statement that Trump knew nothing of Pence’s peril and media reports that Trump was in fact informed at the White House about Pence’s evacuation suggest witnesses like Tuberville could have provided much needed information on this issue of what Trump intended by that Pence discrediting Tweet.
But despite the Senate vote to allow witnesses, there was to be no witness testimony. And the rest is now history.