On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said for the first time publicly that President Donald Trump provoked the insurrection attack on the Capitol on Jan 6.

“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like,” Mr. McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

The shot was clear to Trump but it was also directed at Republicans who backed the president’s efforts to overturn election results in swing states, according to USA Today. 

On Jan. 6, as legislators counted Electoral College votes, the Capitol halls were being attacked. McConnell denounced the insurrection and split from Trump — a dramatically different direction, given McConnell’s role in Trump’s first impeachment was to ensure the president was acquitted — and now McConnell has left open the possibility of convicting Trump. 

Even though Trump’s presidency ends on Wednesday, the Senate will continue to consider whether to move forward with impeachment proceedings. The House of Representatives passed one article of impeachment on Jan. 13, charging Trump with inciting an insurrection at the Capitol, according to the USA Today article.