- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he never wants to speak to President Donald Trump again after Trump sparked a violent uprising in the U.S. Capitol that resulted in five deaths, The Washington Post reported.
- The Kentucky Republican has moved away from Trump in recent weeks and delivered a fiery speech to the Senate floor this week rejecting the president’s continuing allegations of electoral and electoral fraud.
- McConnell delivered the speech as Congress prepared to count the 2020 electoral votes and finalize Joe Biden’s victory, before being interrupted by pro-Trump rioters.
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Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he never wants to speak to President Donald Trump again after a violent U.S. Capitol insurrection on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.
The president was accused of inciting the riot by inciting his supporters at a rally on Wednesday “to fight” and march to the Capitol, where Congress was counting electoral votes and ending Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.
Trump spent months weaving false conspiracy theories about electoral fraud and electoral manipulation, while falsely insisting that the dispute was “stolen” from him and that he is the rightful winner. At Wednesday’s rally, the president reiterated these statements. “We will never concede goals,” he said, as his fans applauded.
Subsequently, crowds of them invaded the Capitol, clashed with the police, invaded the building, ransacked the offices of lawmakers and reached the floors of the Chamber and the Senate.
Lawmakers were debating a Republican challenge to Arizona’s electoral votes, but both chambers were forced into recess as members, Hill officials and reporters housed on the spot or behind makeshift barricades. The pro-Trump mob’s coup attempt left five dead, including a Capitol police officer.
After the building was secured and Congress met again, more than six hours later, McConnell strongly condemned the protesters.
“The United States Senate will not be intimidated,” he said. “We will not be kept out of this chamber by bandits, mobs or threats. We will not bow to illegality or intimidation. We are back at our posts. We will do our duty according to the Constitution and for our nation.”
McConnell added: “Even during an ongoing armed rebellion and the Civil War, the mechanism of our democracy continued. The United States and the United States Congress faced far greater threats than the unbalanced crowd we saw today.”
“They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed,” he said, adding, “This failed insurrection only underscores how crucial the task that lies before us for our republic.”
Congress finished counting electoral votes just before 4 am Eastern time on Thursday, consolidating Biden’s victory.
On Thursday night, Michael Sherwin, the US attorney general in Washington, DC, indicated that federal prosecutors were investigating Trump’s role in inciting insurrection.
“We are looking at all the actors here, not just the people who entered the building, but … there were others who helped, facilitated or played an auxiliary role in that,” Sherwin told reporters by telephone.
The Post reported that when Sherwin was pressed on whether that included Trump, he replied, “We are looking at all the actors here, and anyone who played a role, if the evidence fits the element of a crime, they will be charged. “
After Sherwin’s comments, the president released a video condemning violence on Capitol Hill. The New York Times reported that the president resisted recording the message and relented when he realized he could face legal problems because of the riot.