Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced the Republican National Committee for suggesting the attack on the Capitol was “legitimate political discourse” and said it was wrong to censure lawmakers who joined the congressional probe of the insurrection.
The Kentucky senator, the most powerful Republican lawmaker in Congress, used the most robust language to date to push back against the growing effort by former President Donald Trump and his allies to whitewash or even praise the attackers.
“What happened Jan. 6 ... was a violent insurrection to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election,” McConnell said. “That’s what it was.”
McConnell also said the GOP body should not have censured Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for participating in the investigation of the attack.
“The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority,” McConnell said. “That’s not the job of the RNC.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a frequent critic of Trump, said he strongly disagreed with the move and even texted RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, his niece, to register his disgust.
“To suggest that a violent attack on the seat of democracy is legitimate political discourse is so far from accurate as to ... make people wonder what we’re thinking,” Romney said late Monday.
But not all GOP senators agree.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., another Trump ally, called it “super unhelpful” for “a bunch of D.C. Republicans” to criticize other Republicans, even though that is precisely what the RNC did by censuring Cheney and Kinzinger.
“Listen, whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republican voters,” Hawley said.
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