Despite eventually voting to acquit former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial for inciting an insurrection, Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) skewered Trump in a Senate floor speech ahead of the proceedings.
McConnell acknowledged that Trump's lies about the legitimacy of the 2020 election were what prompted a mob of pro-Trump extremists to storm the United States Capitol, resulting in the deaths of at least five people.
McConnell said:
"There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president, and their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of ... reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth."
Trump eventually responded to McConnell's speech in a statement calling him "a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack." He also encouraged the Republican party to sever ties with McConnell.
Nevertheless, now-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, famous for his blanket unwillingness to entertain any aspect of the Democratic agenda, has said he'll endorse the Republican nominee in the 2024 election—even if that nominee is Donald Trump.
But while McConnell is prepared to support the man whom he admits incited an insurrection on the United States Capitol, Trump remains far less willing to bury the hatchet.
In a Republican National Committee event at Mar-A-Lago, Trump claimed Democrats would have fought the election results if they were in power.
He insulted McConnell in the process, saying:
"If that were [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer instead of this dumb son of a b***h Mitch McConnell they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it."
Trump also continued to repeat the same lies that incited the failed insurrection, insisting that he was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election and that former Vice President Mike Pence was too weak to unilaterally throw out the electoral votes of swing states Trump lost (a power unavailable to Pence under the Constitution).
Trump's words generated a wealth of reactions on social media.
Many unpredictably found themselves agreeing with the former President.
McConnell's office isn't commenting on the situation.
