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Mitch McConnell voted to release Donald Trump, to blame him in a furious speech afterward.
The seemingly incomprehensible turn by the Republican leader sent the Democrats to the roof.
But the tactics describe the final phase of a plan to detain the former president without creating a civil war in the party.
It was a strange ending to a strange day in the Senate when MEPs voted whether Donald Trump should be convicted of inciting the mob on Capitol Hill.
After confusion over witnesses and polls, an animated show by defense attorney Michael van der Veen, and a Republican senator who unannounced voting to stand down, it was time for Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to speak on the camera.
After being one of 43 Republican senators who voted for acquittal, he stood up and basically blamed everything on the former president.
– There is no doubt, no one, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for causing the events. Definitely. The people who broke into the building thought they did so at the request and instruction of the president, Mitch McConnell said.
– And that they had that belief was a predictable consequence of the growing power of falsehoods, conspiracy theories and dangerous exaggerations, which the losing president kept shouting into the world’s largest megaphone.
McConnell also said that Donald Trump initially abdicated his role as president when he did nothing for several hours to stop the attack on Capitol Hill.
– Whatever reaction you wanted to create that afternoon, we know you saw the same live television images as the rest of us. A mob attacked the Capitol in his name. These criminals held up their banners, hung their flags and shouted their loyalty at him, the Republican leader said.
– He didn’t do his job. He did not intervene so that federal law could be enforced and order restored. No, instead I should have happily watched TV when chaos was a given.
Photo: TT NYHETSBYRÅN
Mitch McConnell.
He indicated that Trump can be prosecuted
With those words, he basically confirmed everything the Democrats wanted to prove to the Supreme Court: that Donald Trump lit the fuel that caused the storm and when it happened he did nothing to stop it.
Mitch McConnell stated that his decision to release him was not due to his finding the former president innocent. He said the entire federal court proceeding against a president who resigned was against the constitution, but that Donald Trump has not yet escaped.
He said there are other ways to punish the former president, either through federal prosecution or through civil litigation.
The change led Democrats to scold the Republican leader for the notes. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, called him cowardly and pathetic and was furious that she thought a resigned president could not be ousted, when it was he who delayed the process so that Donald Trump had time to leave. . the White House.
– Everything he said, my God, about Donald Trump and how horrible he was and is and then he says it was too late when the House of Representatives handed over power – no, it wasn’t, he chose not to accept the impeachment, Pelosi said , who apparently shook off anger.
But according to information from American political reporters, Mitch McConnell’s words may have been the end of a cunning plan to neutralize Donald Trump and keep the party together at the same time.
McConnell grew weary of Donald Trump long before the assault on the Capitol and is said to have built up a disdain for him over time. They last spoke in mid-December after McConnell recognized Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the election.
He has made it clear that he will never speak to the former president again. In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Congress, when Democrats began talking about federal law, McConnell was quick to leak information that he might consider removing the vote.
Photo: Evan Vucci / AP
McConnell and Trump.
He intimidated Trump into keeping quiet
According to Maggie Haberman, a New York Times political reporter who has been reviewing Trump for many years, the fear of Mitch McConnell and his power over Republican senators was a major contributing factor to the then-president’s not making things worse down the road. . outside the White House.
“When he later made it clear that he was open to cheating, Trump remained in office and one of the things that kept him from continuing his attacks on democracy was the fear of McConnell,” he said. writes Haberman on Twitter.
When Donald Trump left the White House, the pressure was no longer necessary and Mitch McConnell declared in an email to his colleagues that he intended to vote for freedom before the vote. In the letter to senators, he touched on the constitution and then also gave a reason why others, who have privately declared that they see Donald Trump as guilty, could be free.
According to many American observers, he realized that the votes were not there to safely topple Trump and that in that situation it would have been devastating for Republicans if their leaders had opposed the party. In the situation the party is in with many members who fully supported Donald Trump, it could have meant a civil war.
In addition, it seems to have reassured many Republicans who weighed the indictment against the former president against the risks it had posed.
But by blaming the events so heavily on Trump in the subsequent speech, he indirectly gave Republican support to Joe Biden if he, through his Justice Department, chooses to go after the former president on a federal impeachment, according to subsequent comments. to the vote.
“Mitch McConnell is the smartest politician in Washington,” CNN political experts later agreed.
And if Donald Trump gets stuck in legal proceedings, it will make life easier for Mitch McConnell when he tries to rally the party to regain power in the Senate and House of Representatives.
In an interview with journalists, he made it clear that he will not allow the former president to control and decide which candidates will run in the primaries before the midterm elections in November 2022.
– My goal is to have candidates who can win in November in every way. Some of them may be people the former president likes. Others may not like them. The only thing that matters to me is eligibility, Mitch McConnell told Politico.
In the interview, he did not want to elaborate on what he said in the House that Trump may risk prosecution for his actions.
– I’ve said everything I need to say about it.
McConnell also did not want to say whether he will publicly oppose Trump running in the 2024 presidential election.
– I’m focused on 22.
Annoying Trump supporters
He has also made clear that he and the Republican group in the Senate will endorse all members who will run in next year’s primaries, including Lisa Murkowsi of Alaska, who was the only one who voted to fall among those whose term expires in 2022. .
But he has yet to strike a balancing act to retain power in the party and not irritate the former president’s supporters too much. The post-vote speech provoked Donald Trump supporters in the House of Representatives.
– Many are frustrated by your comments. I don’t mean to embellish it, Arizona member Andy Biggs tells Politico.
He and many others within the party believe that Donald Trump’s influence over Republicans is not fading just because he left the White House, thanks to his strength at campaign rallies and his ability to make headlines.
“The fact that he is no longer in the White House does not mean that he is no longer the leader of the movement that he started four or five years ago,” Biggs told Politico.
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