Trump Advisers Had to Talk Him Out of Going to House Floor During Impeachment, NY Times Reports

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President Donald Trump wanted to show up on the floor of the House of Representatives during their impeachment proceedings in order to defend himself, but senior advisers reportedly talked him out of it.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and the chamber she leads narrowly avoided a confrontation straight out of House of Cards, according to The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt.

Deep into a report on Trump’s latest attempt to manage the damage from his incitement of the Capitol insurrection is the rather stunning detail that Trump had to be talked down from making an appearance at his second impeachment:

Advisers said that Mr. Trump had to be dissuaded from going to the House floor to try to defend himself during Wednesday’s impeachment proceedings, something he wanted to do during his first impeachment in December 2019, advisers said.

The article goes on to describe the isolation Trump is experiencing as online platforms ban him and staffers desert the White House.

Had Trump succeeded at breaching the floor of the House, it’s unclear what opportunity he would have had to defend himself. The proceeding consisted of debate among members and a vote to impeach, neither of which Trump would have standing to participate in.

But it’s also unclear whether Capitol Police who won’t even prevent members of Congress from entering the chamber after setting off metal detectors would have been willing to enforce House rules against the president of the United States.