President Donald Trump needed help to spread the lie that he won the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in fact won the election by seven million popular votes and prevailed in the Electoral College 306-232. For Trump to maintain his fantasy and overturn the election, he needed lawmakers to elevate the fraud. He found plenty of Republican accomplices. 139 House members — more than half the House Republican caucus — and eight senators voted for one or both efforts to block the counting of some electoral votes and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The formal counting of electoral votes was ultimately temporarily halted when terrorists incited by President Trump stormed the Capitol.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) and Rep. Peter Welch (D) were both forced to take cover during the assault. They spoke about that experience, and Trump’s legacy, on the Vermont Conversation.

The Trump presidency, says Welch, has been "a catasrophe." Leahy says that he believes Trump “will be remembered in history as a disaster to our constitution, one who has tried to subvert our laws and government, a person who has lied constantly, and finally, was impeached twice because of that.”