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Senator Mitch McConnell reportedly referred to Donald Trump as a “despicable human being” and “narcissist” who is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered”.
In the weeks leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, McConnell privately told people he was “counting the days” until Trump left office as the former president spread lies about mass voter fraud in an attempt to overturn election results in his favor.
His comments, revealed in a forthcoming biography, give some insight into his contentious relationship with Trump and his true feelings about the former president.
Though publicly McConnell congratulated President Joe Biden on his victory, he also said Trump was “100 percent within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities.”
But his behind-the-scenes commentary paints a different picture, depicting McConnell as deeply frustrated with Trump.
McConnell privately told people Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people” who “had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis”.
“They fired him,” McConnell said, invoking a familiar phrase used by Trump on his reality TV show The Apprentice.
“And for a narcissist like him, that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before because he has no filter now at all,” McConnell said.
The private comments are from McConnell’s personal oral histories which he recorded over nearly three decades. The Kentucky Senator gave them to Michael Tackett, the author of the upcoming biography on McConnell titled The Price of Power.
McConnell’s private irritation with Trump is evident from his oral histories. In one, he referred to Trump as a “despicable human being” because Trump was “sitting” on a Covid-19 relief package that Americans “desperately” needed.
In response to the resurfaced comments, McConnell said in a statement, “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.”
The forthcoming biography on McConnell also reveals what the Republican lawmaker felt and did in the wake of the attack on the Capitol – shortly after he made those private comments about Trump.
McConnell stayed in a secure location with other congressional leaders until rioters dispersed and it was safe to continue with the planned certification of election results. On the Senate floor, McConnell told lawmakers the “failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.”
He then went into his office, addressed his staff, thanked them and wept.
“You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this,” McConnell reportedly his staff.
McConnell publicly held Trump responsible for the attack on the Capitol.
Yet, despite all of this, McConnell still voted to acquit Trump after he was impeached for a second time for his part in inciting the attack on the Capitol. He also endorsed Trump for president this past year.
