Donald Trump made a small peace offering Thursday to the remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, according to three members in the room.
“He referenced that there was one person left in the room that had voted for impeachment and that he is staying and that’s good. We need a bigger Republican majority,” said Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), describing Trump’s comments in a wider speech to the conference Thursday morning.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) agreed that the comments were “forward thinking” and “about winning the election.”
It’s a flip from Trump’s previous behavior. Since that second impeachment vote in early 2021, Trump had habitually attacked the 10 House Republicans who supported it, including backing some of their primary challengers. There are two GOP members left in the chamber who voted for that impeachment: Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) and David Valadao (R-Calif.). Trump seemed to be referring to Valadao, who had skipped the meeting.
Newhouse had attended, but dismissed Trump’s comments when reporters asked if he read them as a dig at him, saying “he didn’t mention me at all.”
Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
