Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was silent Tuesday night until Wednesday morning after former President Donald Trump addressed him in a lengthy statement calling on Republican senators to abandon McConnell and threaten the primary challenges facing incumbents.
“Mitch is a cunning, grumpy and impeccable political heel, and if Republican Senators stay with him, they will not win again,” Trump said Tuesday. “Where necessary and appropriate, I will support primary competitors who make America great again and put our policies of America first.”
Trump also attacked McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s secretary of transportation but resigned after the January 6 riot at the Capitol. He said: “McConnell has no credibility with China because of his family’s significant Chinese businesses.”
And the former president has accused McConnell of being responsible for the GOP Senate’s run-off losses in Georgia for not supporting Trump’s request for $ 2,000 stimulus checks.
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, November 29, 2020, after retiring from Marine One. Trump returned from Camp David. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
TRUMP TRASHES MITCH MCCONNELL IN SEE NEW STATEMENT
This contradicts McConnell, who has made it clear that he blames Trump’s false allegations that he won the presidential election and false accusations of widespread electoral fraud for depressed GOP voters.
“Georgia was a fiasco,” McConnell told the Wall Street Journal in a story that took place Tuesday. “We all know why it happened.”
But McConnell has said nothing since Tuesday afternoon’s statement from Trump was announced. His office did not return a request for comment from Fox News on Tuesday. It follows a multi-day media tour in which the minority leader justifies Republicans’ votes to acquit Trump of the charge of inciting an uprising at the Capitol, while making clear his view that Trump bears fundamental responsibility for the attack.
“January 6 was a scandalous day. A mob blew law enforcement and besieged the first branch of government. U.S. citizens tried to use terrorism to stop a democratic process they did not like,” McConnell said in a statement Monday. written by Wall Street Journal.
“There is no doubt that former President Trump bears moral responsibility. His supporters stormed the Capitol because of the unintentional falsehoods he shouted at the world’s biggest megaphone,” he continued. “His behavior during and after the chaos was also unscrupulous, from the attack on Vice President Mike Pence during the riot to the praise of the criminals after it ended.”
A source close to the former president told Fox News that Trump’s statement was intended to be a direct response to McConnell’s Monday. The source said it was unclear whether there were upcoming rallies or events that Trump plans to participate in, but that Trump, as stated in his statement, plans to reach the campaign in 2022 pre-election elections.
On this Tuesday, December 15, 2020, file photo, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks during a news conference with other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Nicholas Kamm / Pool Photo via AP, File)
Trump’s promise to support the primary challenges to the current positions of the IDP, which he considers insufficiently loyal, coupled with the explicit rejection of McConnell as a ‘third rate’ leader, reinforces tensions within the IDP before 2022 .
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McConnell told the Journal that it is possible that Trump could be a constructive part of the process in rebuilding a GOP senate majority. It is unclear whether he is still of opinion after Tuesday.
Trump has already made it clear that he sees the current Republicans of the House as Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., And Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Who voted to indict him in the House will follow. But they were not leaders of an entire chamber like McConnell, even though Cheney is the third-ranking Republican.
Tuesday was also the most explicit indication so far that Trump would be personally involved in the opposition of the current GOP senators, with each seat significantly more than in the House in the body being less than a quarter as large. He had earlier said “I hope to see” the South Dakota government, Kristi Noem, Senator John Thune, RS.D. But he did not promise personal involvement in the campaign. Furthermore, Noem did not want to participate.
This could complicate matters not only for individual senators deciding whether to reject McConnell and pledge allegiance to Trump – or if they can walk the fine line of supporting both the former president and their Senate leader – but also for the IDP voting apparatus. self.
Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., The new chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC), had earlier rejected proposals that he would not fully support all sitting GOP senators.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., In the East Room of the White House during an event on Trump’s judicial appointments, Wednesday, November 6, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
“I’m clearly going to support our incumbents,” Scott told Fox News last month.
But if Trump races hard in certain races against senators who stand with the minority leader, it could harness the resources of the NRSC before the general election and possibly lead to some embarrassment if Trump’s fiery base carries his candidates to victory.
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Fox News contacted the NRSC to ask what his position would be on the primary election in which Trump ratified the non-incumbent.
The feud between Trump and McConnell is concerned over Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., who is widely regarded as an ally of both men.
“I’m more worried about 2022 than I ever was. I do not want to eat our own,” Graham told Fox News on Tuesday night. He said McConnell should understand that “Trump is the most important Republican in the party” and that “Mitch McConnell was indispensable to Donald Trump’s success.”
“We have to turn it off,” Graham said.
Fox Merks Mark Merideth, Paul Steinhauser and Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.