SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — On the same day House Impeachment managers wrap up their case against former President Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol siege, NY-24 Congressman John Katko stands by his vote to impeach.
The Republican was the featured speaker for Syracuse University’s virtual Thursday Morning Roundtable.
He says, “Everybody should pay attention to what’s happening in the Senate right now, wherever you are on the political spectrum just to make sure you see it, understand the depth and gravity of how bad it was and how close we came to having our Vice President killed and members of Senate and Congress killed.”
Katko was one of only 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach the former president.
“Let’s not forget he’s the one who invited everyone to come to Washington on Jan. 6, and he’s the one who got people spooled up beforehand. He knew of the danger of a problem beforehand, because he was getting the same briefings we were and yet he turned up the heat even more on Jan. 6,” he says.
Katko says Jan. 6 was a ‘hundred times’ worse than anyone could imagine:
“We were in our offices, we were told to barricade our doors. Some of the bad guys got into our building and we were told to turn off our lights and you’re sitting there thinking, ‘Okay, I hear footsteps down the hall, what’s going to happen,’ ya know? You think it could be it.”
During the Thursday Morning Roundtable, the congressman says walking into the Capitol to vote on certifying the presidential election and seeing the mayhem that had ensued earlier that day deeply affected him.
One week later, Katko and over 200 other members of the House would vote to impeach Trump.
“I think it’s the toughest votes I’ll ever take but it’s one of the proudest votes I ever took and has given me great clarity and strength,” Katko says.
