“He’s purging. He’s purging. He’s trying to set the Republican Party up as a bunch of yes-men loyalists,” Rice warned of the former president in an interview at a local bistro here Saturday. “Think about that. That’s scary.”…
“Trump, like no other person I’ve ever met,” he added, “is the most spiteful and petty and vengeful.”…
“He sat there and watched the Capitol get sacked and took pleasure in that. He said: ‘Look what I created! Look how rabid these people are to follow me.’” Rice recalled thinking. “That pushed me over the edge. That’s what a dictator would do.”
No one — not his staff or even his family — knew he had decided to vote for impeachment. Moments after casting that vote, Rice raced out of the Capitol to make a flight home, his chief of staff rushing to craft a statement in the passenger seat. Rice was bombarded by frantic calls from colleagues who thought he had hit the wrong button when voting.
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