‘I’m not afraid of clowns’: Republican defends vote to impeach Trump

One of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the deadly Capitol attack insisted the former president should be consigned to the political past, even as Trump attracted headlines with a Senate race endorsement, in his continued attempt to control the GOP.

"Bring on the circus," Tom Rice of South Carolina told the New York Times. "You know, some people are afraid of clowns. I'm not afraid of clowns.

"He's the past. I hope he doesn't run again. And I think if he does run again, he hurts the Republican party. We desperately need somebody who's going to bring people together. And he is not that guy."

Trump this week called Rice a "backstabbing 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 the Capitol, an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden's election victory which a bipartisan Senate committee linked to seven deaths.

Trump was acquitted when only seven Republican senators found him guilty, remaining free to run for the White House again. He has strongly suggested he will.

On Thursday night, the House committee investigating the January 6 riot staged a public hearing broadcast on TV. Twenty million Americans saw the dramatic presentation, marshaled by Liz Cheney of Wyoming, another anti-Trump Republican, of evidence and testimony meant to show Trump caused the attack.

Rice told the Times: "To me, his gross failure - his inexcusable failure - was when it started. He watched it happen. He reveled in it. And he took no action to stop it. I think he had a duty to try to stop it, and he failed in that duty."

Of his vote to impeach, he said: "I did it then. And I will do it tomorrow. And I'll do it the next day or the day after that. I have a duty to uphold the constitution. And that is what I did."

Rice faces a tough primary against Russell Fry, a state representative endorsed by Trump.

The matter of Trump's endorsement has dominated a Senate primary in another southern state, Alabama. On Friday, Trump endorsed Katie Britt, confirming his decision to un-endorse his previous choice, Mo Brooks, a congressman deeply involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Britt was 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 sought to regain Trump's endorsement after it was withdrawn in March.

"Mo has been wanting it back ever since," Trump said, "but I cannot give it to him! Katie Britt, on the other hand, is a fearless America First Warrior."

Brooks has continued to campaign under the label of "Maga Mo", a reference to Trump's Make America Great Again campaign slogan.

On 6 January 2021, Brooks addressed a rally near the White House 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. The Capitol attack ensued.

Withdrawing his endorsement of Brooks, Trump accused the far-right congressman of going "woke" - for saying it was time to move on from litigating the 2020 election.

On Friday, Brooks said: "Let's just admit it: Trump endorses the wrong people sometimes."