The Senate minority leader publicly soured on the former president after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, breaking four years of loyal support.
Former President Donald Trump issued a caustic and highly personal statement against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday, effectively declaring war on the Kentucky Republican for failing to back his attempts to undermine the 2020 election.
“Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,” Trump said in the statement released by his PAC.
McConnell publicly soured on the former president after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, breaking four years of support from the Senate leadership. Though he voted against convicting Trump at the Senate impeachment trial, he said from the Senate floor that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection, which left at least five people dead.
McConnell objected to the constitutionality of convicting a former president. But he also told his caucus that Trump could face criminal prosecution.
McConnell penned a Sunday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal defending his decision, which particularly angered Trump, according to a person familiar with the situation. Trump dictated the Tuesday statement himself, the person said, and the version that went out was toned down from the former president’s original comments. Another source familiar with the situation said Jason Miller, a top Trump adviser, took the lead in writing the final version of the statement.
A person familiar with the crafting of the statement confirmed that it could have been far worse. An earlier draft mocked McConnell for having multiple chins, the person said. But Trump was convinced by advisers to take it out.
“There was also a lot of repetitive stuff and definitely something about him having too many chins but not enough smarts,” the person said.
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Former President Donald Trump issued a caustic and highly personal statement against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today, effectively declaring war on the Kentucky Republican for failing to back his attempts to undermine the 2020 election. https://t.co/Sd27cejiti
— POLITICO (@politico) February 16, 2021
So glad that Trump is finally learning some restraint https://t.co/dGryy9jjzV
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 16, 2021
how is anyone reading this I was told that trump had been silenced by big tech https://t.co/q959lusXcP
— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) February 16, 2021
Area politician who never won a majority of the popular vote gives advice to politician who has never lost an election. https://t.co/BGg2lAbiqy
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 16, 2021
That’s a long and bombastic way of saying, “I was the first president to lose the White House, House of Representatives, and Senate in one term since Herbert Hoover, but Mitch McConnell is the real loser.” https://t.co/m6GMnTqsoQ
— David French (@DavidAFrench) February 17, 2021
Pathetic. No. Maybe not. I can’t even work up any pathos here.
Now I really don’t care about anything he has to say. So glad we have a president doing actual work with no time to write stupid nonsense like this.
By the way, “Save America?” Since when, Teflon Don? All you care about is saving yourself.
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