Report: McConnell Not Planning To Fire Back At Trump Or Speak To Him Ever Again

President Donald Trump speaks alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as they hold a meeting about tax reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 5, 2017. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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People shouldn’t expect to see Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) continue to publicly spar with ex-President Donald Trump, according to the Washington Post.

McConnell is reportedly going to let Trump have the final word in their brief spat, which saw the former president issue a lengthy screed on Tuesday calling him a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” and claiming Republican senators “will not win again” if they remain allied with McConnell.

The GOP leader’s associates told the Post that he doesn’t plan to speak to Trump ever again after their last conversation on December 14, nor does he have interest in continuing their feud.

Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff, told the Post that he would be “very surprised” if McConnell “ever says the words Donald Trump again.”

Trump had attacked McConnell on Tuesday in retaliation to the GOP leader’s public condemnation of the ex-president’s incitement of the violent siege of the Capitol in January.

On Saturday, McConnell said on the Senate floor that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection, though that speech came right after he had voted to acquit the former president in the impeachment trial.

Then McConnell penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday that attempted to tamp down on the outrage over his decision to acquit Trump, asserting again that there was “no question former President Trump bears moral responsibility” for the attack. The GOP leader also suggested that though the ex-president had been acquitted in the trial, there was still room for law enforcement to criminally prosecute him.

It was that op-ed that especially drew Trump’s fury, according to the Post, and the next day the former president fired off a diatribe against McConnell through his political action committee that threatened to back GOP primary challengers against McConnell’s allies and declared that the Kentucky Republican “will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Please keep dividing yourselves further

  2. Mitch has all the power here–he can spend the rest of his goddamned life on Capitol Hill and K Street. The #TreasonCaucus members who should be scared are the House Reps who have to go back and face the feral MAGAts in their insanely gerrymandered districts.

    Sucks to suck, you fascist assholes.

  3. I hope you don’t mean by mitosis. We don’t want more of them.

  4. Avatar for elkal elkal says:

    "very surprised” if McConnell “ever says the words … … again.

    Finally, acting like a role model we should be striving to.emulate!

  5. Avatar for jpc jpc says:

    Like the Church does with its numerous problems, the Republican Party leadership will try to remain silent regarding their complicity with Trump and his actions with the intent of outlasting the wave of discontent. Do not let this happen.

    Their base, on the other hand, actually believe the lies they have been fed that heavily focus on others getting something they themselves do not get (which is a total lie). They will not remain quiet. The problem now is that the leadership can no longer control a large dangerous subset of their base. So in order to survive, they will blame windmills or the Green plan or “put your favorite reason here”, and wait it out, but all the while kicking up as much dust and dirt to misdirect people from locking in on their actions.

    Their “false equivalences” are just another tactic. They know most people have a short attention span, and will attempt to run out the clock. This is where court and legislative actions are necessary against voter restrictions, etc. The Republican Party’s strategy (and it’s a smart one) was to and remains to gain control of municipal and state levels of government so they can enforce redistricting efforts to ensure their advantage in elections against an already growing majority who oppose their beliefs and policies. That program is now so entrenched it will be a major challenge to overcome. Same with their use of tactics to load the judicial system with far right “judges” who will support their decisions contrary to the intent and letter of US laws.

    This battle is just starting and needs to be continued. It will be a marathon, not a sprint. Trump is expendable to the Republican leadership, but they created a monster and I get the sense they have no clue how to eliminate the problem. Senate Minority Leader McConnell sticking his head in the sand and ignoring Trump and the far right is his best response as he attempts to hunker down and wait out the rage.

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