A Reminder of Mitch McConnell’s Cowardice
I have noted before that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has, in my view, a specially shameful legacy when it comes to Trump because all evidence suggests, including public statements McConnell has made, that he understands Trump’s many deficiencies. But when he had the chance to bar the man from further federal office, he demurred and dissembled.
The AP provides a reminder, McConnell called Trump ‘stupid’ and ‘despicable’ in private after the 2020 election, a new book says.
Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month.
McConnell made the remarks in private as part of a series of personal oral histories that he made available to Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief of The Associated Press. Tackett’s book, “The Price of Power,” draws from almost three decades of McConnell’s recorded diaries and from years of interviews with the normally reticent Kentucky Republican.
[…]
The comments about Trump quoted in the book came in the weeks before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Trump was then actively trying to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. McConnell feared this would hurt Republicans in two Georgia runoffs and cost them the Senate majority. Democrats won both races.
I think it is noteworthy to pause and note that this was before the insurrection. And, also, McConnell was right about the Georgia run-offs. It is quite likely that Trump’s behavior discouraged Republicans from voting in those run-offs.
Publicly, McConnell had congratulated Biden after the Electoral College certified the presidential vote and the senator warned his fellow Republicans not to challenge the results. But he did not say much else. Privately, he said in his oral history that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office, and that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people. They’ve had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”
“And for a narcissist like him,” McConnell continued, “that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all.”
Before those Georgia runoffs, McConnell said Trump is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered and can’t even figure out where his own best interests lie.”
Trump was also holding up a coronavirus aid package at the time, despite bipartisan support. “This despicable human being,” McConnell said in his oral history, “is sitting on this package of relief that the American people desperately need.”
After the vote to convict Trump in his Senate impeachment trial failed 57-43, McConnell was clear on who was responsible. But, since it was after the vote, the bravery of his truth was blunted shall we say.
In a speech after that vote, McConnell said “there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” and that “a mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags, and screaming their loyalty to him.”
The whole speech is pretty harsh as it pertained to Trump, in fact.
And the evidence from his own oral histories as reported above underscored that he already knew the Trump was a terrible human being and president.
And yet, when he had the chance he did not vote to convict in the Senate, and therefore did not lead his caucus to do so. Had just a portion of the GOP Senators voted to convict Trump and thereby barring him from holding federal office in the future, the Republicans could have had the chance at a reset. Instead, we are where we are. Should Trump win the White House a second time and wreak whatever havoc he is likely to wreak, that damage will be on McConnell’s head (although clearly not solely). There is no denying that he stood at a specific and unique place in history and he failed the test. I still find it stunning that a man could say, from the Senate floor, “there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day” but do so after the vote, let alone not at least vote to convict himself. It isn’t as if his personal political fortunes, nor his bank account, were on the line.
I will also note the following from McConnell’s speech, which rings pretty hollow, “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
McConnell had the chance to hold Trump accountable and failed to do so. None of this is new, it just seemed like a worthwhile addition to what we know about his legacy.
Point of information: Just days before those runoffs in Georgia, McConnell announced the GOP-controlled Senate would not approve additional COVID stimulus checks. McConnell all but told every single voter in Georgia that voting for Republicans would mean no more free money.
It is one of the grossest acts of political malfeasance in history.
McConnell’s legacy is ensuring GOP power by any means necessary and at any cost in the face of demographic and societal inevitability.
We might have thought Paul Ryan was the most Randian of the GOP but it was always McConnell that delivered it without saying the quiet parts out loud.
I recall this very well. I said at the time Mitch essentially said “El Weirdo is clearly guilty of what I voted to acquit him for.”
Some “bravery.”
@Argon:
I hope there is a special circle in Hell for Mitch McConnell where he can sit for eternity pondering where he went wrong. TheRyGuy can come by and tell him it is not because of his manipulation of the Senate’s role with SCOTUS appointments, or his empowerment/protection of Trump for the sake of minority rule, or his nihilistic obstructionism during the Obama administration, but it was rather because he didn’t give enough “free money” to Republicans before a run-off election in GA.
This quote is what galls me the most. That Mitch McConnell knew Trump was a cancer and was too cowardly to convict him is one thing. But, for McConnell to cover his ass by pushing the accountability to the criminal justice system at the time, then to push back on the legal and civic trials followed is appalling.
Yet, people still talk to this guy as though what he might say as any credibility or utility. If the press wanted to serve the public interest, every interview of McConnell was start with a question about this flip-flop. Then, the interview would end with a statement acknowledging McConnell’s words were not to be trusted.
McConnell is one of the biggest failures we’ve had. He completely broke the Senate, turning what was already a growing super-majority problem into a super-majority requirement for virtually everything. And abdicating any responsibility for legislating while preferring to pack the courts to advance a conservative agenda all the while decrying liberal “judicial activism.” And putting party before country at every opportunity. The f**** is still planning to vote for Trump THIS election for God’s sake.
Congress hasn’t been a truly functional institution in roughly 3 decades, primarily because of the choices of Mitch in the Senate and Newt in the House. They had lots of help (and Congress had plenty of flaws before they came along), but they led the effort to turn Congress into a do-nothing clown show, which in turn has caused massive swathes of power to move from what should be the most important Constitutional branch to the executive and judicial because shit still has to get done even while Congress can’t find it’s ass with both hands, a map, and a neon sign pointing to it.
I hope there’s a Hell so both of them can get what they so richly deserve.
Over his career, I became impressed with McConnell’s political judgement – his ability to know what will hurt them and what won’t. He used that judgement to carry out things I really didn’t like, but the skills he had were quite real.
Which makes his behavior in late 2020 and in the impeachment proceedings even stranger. I guess he calculated that the course he took was better for the Republican party, but I’m not sure he would say that now.
I mean, yeah, you can talk about cowardice, but I don’t think that was the primary motivation. Maybe he knew he couldn’t get the two more votes to convict, and decided not to stick his head out. After all, vote-counting is sort of a critical skill for a guy in his position.
@Jay L Gischer: Yea. I don’t see it as cowardice but pure opportunism and Machiavellianism. What I don’t get is the long term goal beyond capturing power. What is the power for?
Contrast with Lindsey Graham or Marco Rubio: Straightforward examples of cravenness.
@Argon:
What everyone has missed here is that Mitch McConnell is just as low & a suck up as Ted Cruz.
Trump denigrated Cruz’s wife & Cruz kissed his a$$ as hard & as often as he could & can. Trump denigrated McConnell’s wife, who was in his administration & McConnell proves that he too is in the toilet Trump dumps in. They’re just hoping to not go down the drain. With any luck Trump’s flatulence will take them ALL DOWN & we get to keep the country we have been fighting to keep for almost 248 years.