GOP senator warns ‘rage-peddlers’ will try to ‘whitewash’ the plot to assassinate Pence

The Washington Post on Friday published an explosive new account of the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, reporting that the Donald Trump supporters rioting to overturn the election came "perilously close" to reaching Vice President Mike Pence.

Videos and online postings suggest that several pro-Trump rioters intended to kidnap Pence and possibly even execute him if he didn't overturn the election.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), one of the Senate jurors who will decide the fate of Trump's second impeachment, warned of people attempting to "whitewash" the insurrection during a new statement posted Friday.

"Rage-peddlers are going to try to whitewash the attack on the Capitol, saying that a few bad apples got out of control. That's wrong," Sasse wrote.

"Every American needs to understand what the Department of Justice has just made public: Investigators have strong evidence to suggest that some of the rioters who stormed the United States Capitol planned to kidnap and possibly assassinate the Vice President," he noted.

"These men weren't drunks who got rowdy — they were terrorists attacking this country's constitutionally-mandated transfer of power," Sasse explained. "They failed, but they came dangerously close to starting a bloody constitutional crisis."

"They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The FBI is investigating widespread calls for violence across the country and every American has an obligation to lower the temperature," he argued.