(WASHINGTON) — When Donald Trump meets with Republican senators Thursday in Washington, he will come face-to-face with Mitch McConnell for the first time in three-and-a-half years.
In fact, the former president and Senate Minority Leader have not spoken to each other since Dec. 15, 2020.
That was the day that McConnell gave a speech on the Senate floor congratulating Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their 2020 election victory.
As I described in my book, “Betrayal,” Trump was so enraged by McConnell’s speech that he called his office minutes after it was over.
McConnell later told me that Trump yelled at him in an expletive-ridden rant, insisting he had not lost the election.
When Trump finally stopped yelling, McConnell said to him, “Well, the Electoral College is the final word.”
Trump then hung up — and that was the last time the two men spoke to each other.
Two months later, McConnell voted “not guilty” in Trump’s impeachment trial, but in a speech immediately following the vote, he offered a searing condemnation of Trump’s actions on and before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump’s supporters — and suggested the former president should be prosecuted.
“Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty,” McConnell said. “The House accused the former president of, quote, ‘incitement.’ That is a specific term from the criminal law.
“Let me put that to the side for one moment and reiterate something I said weeks ago: There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” he continued.
“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
Asked on Wednesday about his meeting with Trump on Thursday, McConnell said he would support the Republican “nominee.”
“I said three years ago, right after the Capitol was attacked, that I would support our nominee regardless of who it was — including him,” McConnell told reporters. “I’ve said earlier this year, I support him — he’s earned the nomination by the voters all across the country. And of course, I’ll be at the meeting tomorrow.”
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