Acknowledging the horrors of the January day is meant to blunt the visceral impact of the House Democrats' case and quickly pivot to what Trump's defenders see as the core -- and more winnable -- issue of the trial: Whether Trump can be held responsible for inciting the deadly Jan. 6 riot.
In a brief filed on the eve of the impeachment trial, lawyers for the former president leveled a wide-ranging attack on the case.
House Democrats prosecuting the case told senators they were presenting "cold, hard facts" against Trump, who is charged with inciting the mob siege of the Capitol to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The Senate impeachment trial starts in earnest on February 9. Trump is charged with inciting a mob of supporters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Mitch McConnnell's statement, in a closed-door meeting of senators, was an acknowledgment of the extent to which revelations from former national security adviser John Bolton have scrambled the trial's schedule
Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters it's "increasingly likely" that other Republican senators will now join the push for former national security adviser John Bolton to testify after the revelations from his book about Trump's reasoning for withholding Ukraine aid.
