‘Sleazeball Narcissist’: McConnell Eviscerates Trump In New Book, Says Jan. 6th Was ‘Impeachable Offense’
CNN’s Dana Bash and Manu Raju discussed new quotes from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday, in which the top Republican in the U.S. Senate eviscerated Donald Trump’s character and actions around Jan. 6th.
“GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has some harsh words for his party under Donald Trump. In an upcoming biography by the Associated Press’s Michael Tackett. McConnell says the, quote, ‘MAGA movement is completely wrong.’ I want to bring in CNN’s chief congressional correspondent and host of Inside Politics Sunday, Manu Raju. These are really strong comments from McConnell,” began Bash, introducing Raju.
“Yeah, and a lot of this was reserved in the aftermath of January 6th, 2021. Remember how Trump and McConnell, they really worked, worked closely together through the duration of Donald Trump’s time in office. If it weren’t for McConnell, Donald Trump would not have been able to dramatically reshape the Supreme Court,” Raju began, adding:
Of course, McConnell kept that Supreme Court seat vacant under Barack Obama for more than a year. Donald Trump got three Supreme Court seats. McConnell also helped usher through a major tax cut law. But in the aftermath of January 6th, McConnell’s views completely changed. He talked about the impeachment trial, the second impeachment trial. Donald Trump, of course, was acquitted. Mitch McConnell voted to acquit Donald Trump, but he level some scathing criticism, not just on the Senate floor, but also to Michael Tackett of the Associated Press.
He said, ‘I’m not at all conflicted about whether what the president did is an impeachable offense.’ He said, ‘I think in his urging insurrection and people attacking the Capitol as a direct result is about as close to an impeachable offense as you can imagine, with the possible exception of maybe being an agent for another country.’
Remember, he justified his decision to acquit at the time because he said as a procedural argument it was Donald Trump was out of office. That impeachment trial in the Senate had been after Donald Trump had left office. And Republicans like McConnell said, you can’t do this to a former president.
They thought Trump would be done with the Republican Party at that point. Of course, that has not happened. But he did blame Trump essentially for what happened on January 6th. McConnell also says, ‘I don’t know whether you can make a conclusive argument that he’s directly responsible for them storming the Capitol. But I think it’s not in dispute that those folks would not have been here in the first place if he had not asked them to come and to disrupt the actual acceptance of the outcome of the election.’ And Dana, Mitch McConnell was so blunt throughout this biography. I’ve asked him many times over the last several years about Donald Trump, the aftermath of their falling out in the like.
He rarely wants to engage in this topic, but he did here in this biography, he calls Trump at one point, a ‘sleazeball narcissist,’ he called him, said ‘not very smart,’ called him ‘nasty,’ and just about every bad quality. You would not want somebody to have. But he has endorsed Donald Trump, of course. And he was asked about his office, was asked about why he said this or any comment about his comments. He said, whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him. But we are all on the same team now.
“I mean, wow. It’s certainly a lot. And I totally hear you on the argument that he voted no to two. He’s voted to acquit Donald Trump in the impeachment trial. But imagine if he didn’t if he were impeached and convicted, he wouldn’t have been able to run for president. So he Mitch McConnell, would have been able to change all of the things that he describes himself in that book,” Bash concluded.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
