Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell was silent Tuesday night until Wednesday morning after former President Donald Trump approached him in a long statement urging Republican senators to abandon McConnell and threatening with primary challenges holders.
“Mitch is a serious, taciturn and serious political hack, and if Republican senators stay with him, they won’t win again,” Trump said on Tuesday. “Where necessary and appropriate, I will support the main rivals who advocate Making America Great Again and our America First policy.”
Trump also attacked McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s transportation secretary, but resigned after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. He said, “McConnell has no credibility in China because of his family’s considerable Chinese business stakes.”
And the former president accused McConnell of being responsible for the Republican Party’s runoff defeats to the Senate in Georgia because he would not support Trump’s request for $ 2,000 stimulus checks.
President Donald Trump walks on the south lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, November 29, 2020, after stepping down from Marine One. Trump was returning from Camp David. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
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This contradicts McConnell, who has made it clear that he blames Trump’s false claims that he won the presidential election and the false accusations of widespread electoral fraud for depressing Republican Party electoral participation.
“Georgia was a fiasco,” McConnell told the Wall Street Journal in an article published on Tuesday. “We all know why this happened.”
But McConnell has said nothing since Trump’s statement on Tuesday afternoon was released. His office did not return a request for comment from Fox News on Tuesday. This follows what was a multi-day media tour in which the minority leader was justifying Republican votes to absolve Trump of the impeachment charge that he incited a Capitol insurrection, while making clear his view that Trump has responsibility fundamental for the attack.
“January 6 was a shameful day. A mob bloodied the police and besieged the first branch of the government. American citizens tried to use terrorism to prevent a democratic process they did not like,” wrote McConnell in an article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. market.
“There is no doubt that former President Trump has moral responsibility. His supporters have invaded the Capitol because of the unbalanced falsehoods he shouted into the world’s largest megaphone,” he continued. “His behavior during and after the chaos was also unfair, from attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the rebellion to praising the criminals after it ended.”
A source close to the former president told Fox News that Trump’s statement was intended to be a direct response to McConnell’s Monday article. That source said it is unclear whether there is any rally or event that Trump plans to attend, but that Trump, as his statement says, plans to enter the campaign in the Republican Party primaries before 2022.
This Tuesday, December 15, 2020, archival photo, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky speaks during a press conference with other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Nicholas Kamm / Photo of the pool via AP, Archive)
Trump’s promise that he will support the primary challenges to Republican Party occupiers that he sees as insufficiently loyal paired with McConnell’s explicit repudiation as a “third-rate” leader increases tension within the Republican Party before 2022.
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McConnell told the Journal that it is possible that Trump could be “a constructive part of the process” in rebuilding a Republican majority in the Senate. It is unclear whether he still holds that opinion after Tuesday.
Trump had already made it clear that he would go after Republican House representatives, such as MPs Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. And Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., Who voted for his impeachment in the House. But they were not leaders of an entire chamber like McConnell, although Cheney is the House’s third Republican.
Tuesday was also the most explicit indication to date that Trump would be personally involved in opposing the Republican Party’s acting senators, with each seat meaning significantly more than in the House, in the body that is less than a quarter the size . He had previously said “I hope to see” South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, to challenge Senator John Thune, RS.D. But he did not promise personal involvement in the campaign. In addition, Noem refused to run.
This can complicate matters not only for individual senators to decide whether they need to repudiate McConnell and swear allegiance to Trump – or whether they can walk the fine line of supporting the former president and his Senate leader – but also for the Republican Party electoral apparatus in itself.
Senator Rick Scott, R-Fla., The new chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), previously rejected suggestions that he would not fully support all incumbent Republican senators.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., In the East Room of the White House during an event about Trump’s judicial appointments, Wednesday, November 6, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky)
“I am clearly supporting our representatives,” Scott told Fox News last month.
But if Trump is campaigning hard in certain disputes against senators who are with the minority leader, it could deplete NRSC resources before the general election and potentially lead to some embarrassing losses if Trump’s fervent base leads his candidates to victory.
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Fox News contacted the NRSC to ask what their position will be in the primaries in which Trump endorsed the non-holder.
The rivalry between Trump and McConnell is worrying Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., who is widely considered an ally of the two men.
“I’m more concerned with 2022 than ever. I don’t want to eat our own,” Graham said on Fox News Tuesday night. He said that McConnell should understand that “Trump is the most important Republican in the party” and that “Mitch McConnell was indispensable to Donald Trump’s success”.
“We need to get this over with,” said Graham.
Mark Merideth, Paul Steinhauser and Angelica Stabile of Fox News contributed to this report.