Hours after pro-Trump mob stormed Capitol, McConnell told @jmartNYT he was "exhilarated" Trump had "thoroughly discredited" himself. “He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. Couldn’t have happened at a better time.” On THIS WILL NOT PASS: https://t.co/kYDHL5OnSm
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) April 25, 2022
#MoscowMitch, the Human Speed Bump:
… “What do you hear about the Twenty-Fifth Amendment?” he asked [NYT reporter Jonathan] Martin, eager for intelligence about whether the Cabinet and vice president might remove Trump from office, according to the book. Then McConnell said, according to the book, that he had spoken to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) about issuing a joint statement telling Trump to stay away from the inauguration. A McConnell spokesman declined to comment on the book…
The portions of the book reviewed by The Post detail how leading Washington Republicans loathed or were skeptical of Trump behind the scenes — yet capitulated repeatedly to his demands, fearful of his powerful and loyal base and his ability to damage them politically. The book also illustrates how there were miscalculations by other Republicans about Trump and his ability to hold a grip on the party after the Jan. 6 deadly riot from a pro-Trump mob — and a misguided sense that the proverbial political fever would break…
That night, with the attack seared in his mind, McConnell took a strident tone against Trump and his desire to slash his influence going forward, according to the book. Citing the 2014 midterm elections, where McConnell attacked some of the fringe far-right candidates, he said he would take Trump and his ilk down in the 2022 midterms.
McConnell tells his staff that Trump is a “despicable person” and says he will take him on politically.
“We crushed the sons of b—-es,” he said to Martin, according to the book, “and that’s what we’re going to do in the primary in ’22.”
McConnell has dialed back his criticisms of Trump since and has said he would even support Trump if he was the Republican nominee in 2024…