For years, Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s disdain for former President Donald Trump has been measured in measure, but in a new biography of McConnell to be released next week, McConnell is unabashedly critical of the former president, at several points calling Trump “.stupid,” “evil”, “narcissistic” and “despicable human beings”.
Until less than two weeks The elections On a day when Trump may have a chance to return to the White House, McConnell, who has been his party’s leader for a record-breaking 17 years in the Senate, says Trump’s MAGA movement has done “a lot of damage” to the Republican Party and turned it around. Former President Ronald Reagan “in something he wouldn’t admit to.”
ABC News has obtained an advance copy of “The Price of Power” from Associated Press Washington Deputy Bureau Chief Michael Tackett. The book provides an in-depth treatment of McConnell’s life from his initial illness with polio to his death looking out after the upcoming elections from the board. His exit from the top of the conference has been colored by Trump’s rift and the direction the party has taken.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) waves as he walks inside the U.S. Capitol prior to the arrival of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a meeting with congressional leaders in Washington, DC on September 26, 2024.
Leah Millis/Reuters
“I know I can’t influence the broader Republican Party, but I have influence here, and I’m going to use it because I think it’s important to the country, and I think the MAGA movement is completely wrong,” McConnell says. in the book
“The Price of Power” details McConnell’s growing frustration with Trump in the days leading up to the 2020 election and beyond.
After the election, McConnell said, “Democrats aren’t the only ones counting down the days” until Trump leaves office, and Trump’s efforts to mount a baseless election challenge and allege a rigged election “underscore the good judgment of the American people.” “He’s had enough wrongs, pure lies almost every day, and he’s been fired.”
However, Trump will be inducted on November 5th McConnell’s endorsement.
“What I’ve said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him, but we’re all on the same team now,” McConnell said in a statement to ABC News.
‘Detached from reality’
McConnell called Trump’s behavior “out of touch with reality” after the 2020 election.
“The behavior after the election was getting further and further away from reality,” McConnell says in the book, “and it seems to me that it formed this alternate universe of how things happened.”
The book details McConnell’s day on Jan. 6, 2021, including his speech on the Senate floor, urging senators not to contest the election count before the chamber was cleared.
McConnell said he believed what Trump did on Jan. 6 was an “impeachable crime.”
“I’m not at all conflicted as to whether what the president did is an impeachable offense. I believe it is. Calling for a riot and attacking the Capitol as a direct result…is as close to an impeachable offense as you can imagine, with the possible exception of being an agent of another country.” .
On February 13, 2021, McConnell gave a speech in which he blamed Trump for the rebellion.
“They did this because he was angry that the most powerful man on Earth had been fed wild falsehoods. He lost the election. Former President Trump’s actions preceded the rebellion in a shameful dereliction of duty… There is no doubt, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for the day. about provoking events.
However, McConnell would ultimately vote against impeachment. And later, after the Republican party selected Trump as their candidate in 2024, he also accepted.
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A political calculation
It was a political calculation McConnell made that set him apart from Trump’s most vocal opponents, such as Republican Liz Cheney, who lost the primary because she dared to challenge Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) walks to his office from the Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill on September 25, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
“I differed with Liz in that I didn’t see how blowing yourself up and getting off the playing field was helpful in getting the party back to where she and I probably think we are,” McConnell later added to Tackett. , “I think the act of self-sacrifice might sell books, but it won’t have the effect of changing the party. That’s where we differed.”
Even before the 2020 election, McConnell’s relationship with Trump was rocky.
When Trump began to gain prominence as a possible nominee in 2016, McConnell described him as a “most unusual candidate.”
“What I tried to do, because I had candidates who dealt with the Trump factor differently in different states, was to keep my mouth shut because I didn’t want to make it an issue in a particular Senate race,” McConnell told his oral historian. shortly after the election, the book says.
The book details the relationship between McConnell and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, who he said took “take turns” talking to Trump. Ryan described Trump as an “amoral narcissist” in the book.
“Every day, every week, every month we were more surprised by how honest he was, how erratic he was, how strange he was,” Ryan says in the book. “He shot the messengers, and Mitch and I were always the messengers. We’d always have to explain to him the practical limitations of government. He never liked hearing that.”
McConnell was criticized for several of Trump’s moves, including his decision to interfere in the 2017 Alabama special election that saw Republican Roy Moore. Democrat Doug Jones won.
“I advised Trump to stay out of it,” McConnell said. Instead, “Trump went into the middle and tried to elect Moore, and surprisingly, Alabama elected a Democrat to the Senate.” McConnell said, “I’m glad the Democrats won.”
He said Trump’s decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey was another mistake.
“His actions have put him in jeopardy, and I’m sure his lawyers are probably freaking out because he won’t shut up. He’s completely out of control,” McConnell said.
Despite all of this, McConnell still appeared at a Kentucky rally with Trump in the run-up to the 2020 election. He thanked her for “making America great again.”
That speech focused on Trump and McConnell’s combined influence in the federal courts.
