Mitch McConnell hid his pleasure, I should think, in responding to a reporter's question, which is barely audible: "Why are you holding out in endorsing [Trump]?"
JUST IN—Mitch McConnell refuses to endorse Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/igL7K3jcmc
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 27, 2024
If he persists in holding out, let us count the whys.
In Oct. 2022, Trump posted on Truth Social that McConnell has a "DEATH WISH" and he "is willing to take the country down with him." He either "hates Donald J. Trump" or he "believes in the Fake and Highly Destructive Green New Deal," which had peaked three or four years earlier and has rarely been heard from since. Far worse, Trump then mocked the ethnicity of the senator's spouse, Elaine Chao: "[McConnell] must seek help and advice from his China loving wife, Coco."
Trump's former White House communications director, Alyssa Farah Griffin, couldn't take it anymore. Replying to his post about death wishes and "Coco," she tweeted that "this isn’t some crazy person on the internet, this is the GOP front-runner for President if the Party doesn’t wake up & demand better." Her overall sentiment was correct but she had one fact wrong: Trump is some crazy person on the internet. Disgusted, Griffin added that "he’s not even trying to hide the racism at this point. Just despicable." As for her "if" warning, the party didn’t wake up and so it never demanded better.
Moving along with the whys of the Senate minority leader's non-endorsement, at a 2022 rally Trump called McConnell "an old broken down crow." Saying his wife Melania would chastise him if he used foul language, he opted for a punchline ellipsis. McConnell, he said, is "an old broken down piece of ... crow."
The year before, at a Republican National Committee gathering, Trump called McConnell a "dumb son of a bitch." The next year at a Republican donor event Trump again called McConnell a "dumb son of a bitch," as well as a "stone cold loser." He also said "a real leader" would have refused to accept the (legitimate) election results. Nevertheless, only days later, McConnell announced he'd support Trump if he's the party's 2024 nominee.
Finally, in interviews with Maggie Haberman for her book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, he followed through with what he had wanted to say earlier: "The Old Crow’s a piece of shit." Wrote Haberman: "In fact, McConnell had kept Republican senators in line over and over to advance Trump’s policy and personnel concerns and generally protect his political standing as the leader of the Republican Party."
That's true. But Trump's singular litmus test of a "a real leader" is one who follows obsequiously and trumpets his asinine humbug about a stolen election. I'm no fan of Mitch McConnell; what he did to President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, prior to committing the Senate's most flagrant act of hypocrisy with another nominee, was unforgivable. I'll give him some credit, though, for essentially telling Trump where to get off about an endorsement— by telling him nothing.
Except there's this, from The Times: "People close to both men are working behind the scenes ... to pave the way for a critical endorsement of the former president." Come on, Mitch, don't be a Ted Cruz. But he almost certainly will be.
He's just announced that he's stepping down as Minority Leader when the next session starts. Perhaps he figures he's done all the damage he needs to do.
Posted by: Uncle Billy | February 28, 2024 at 11:58 AM
Then there's this: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/2/28/2226395/-The-17-worst-things-Mitch-McConnell-did-to-destroy-democracy?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web
I'm sure we could come up with a longer list.
Posted by: Uncle Billy | February 28, 2024 at 02:50 PM