Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Kentucky) didn’t hold back in critiquing former President Donald Trump, according to a new excerpt from This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
“I feel exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself,” McConnell reportedly said, following the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
“He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger,” McConnell added. “Couldn’t have happened at a better time.”
Some questioned why McConnell refused to vote to impeach Trump over incitement of an insurrection even though he blamed the former President for the events of that day.
“I didn’t get to be leader by voting with five people in the conference,” McConnell is credited with saying.
According to the excerpts, other high-ranking Republicans were critical of Trump behind closed doors but were reluctant to come out against him publically in fear of how Trump and his followers could damage their political careers.
McConnell told Fox News in a 2021 interview that he would support Trump if he were to become the GOP nominee again in 2024, but clarified earlier this month that he would support whoever the GOP nominee was.
“I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party,” he said. “That will mean that whoever the nominee is has gone out and earned the nomination.”
