In the year 2024, most people know Senator Mitch McConnell is a shameless hack, and there’s very little that should come as a surprise with regard to just how big of a shameless hack he is. But just for the historical record—and so that 200 years from now, students cracking open their text books don’t have to wonder why his face is pictured under the header “Most Massive Political Hack of all Time”—here’s a fun new anecdote re: the Kentucky lawmaker privately acknowledging Donald Trump is basically the Antichrist, and foisting him on the American public nevertheless.
The Associated Press reports that for The Price of Power, a new biography of McConnell by journalist Michael Tackett, the longtime GOP leader told him following the 2018 midterms that Trump ”has every characteristic you would not want a president to have” and was “not very smart, irascible, nasty.” After the 2020 election, McConnell told Tackett he was counting down the days ’til Trump left office; that he believed Trump to be a “narcissist”; that Trump was “stupid as well as well as…ill-tempered”; and that the then president was a “despicable human being.”
Shortly thereafter, Trump incited a violent attack on the Capitol in an attempt to hold onto power; while holed up with staff in his office, Tackett reports, McConnell started crying while telling the group, “You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this.” The following month, the lawmaker declared on the Senate floor that Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection—but not before voting to acquit the guy after he was impeached by the House. Had McConnell chosen to cast a guilty vote—and rallied enough of his Republican colleagues to do the same—Trump could have been barred from ever holding office again.
But, of course, not only did McConnell not do that, he went onto to endorse Trump’s 2024 bid for office in March, saying “it should come as no surprise” that he would back the GOP nominee. And he’s right; it did not come as a surprise, because despite the whole “[Trump is a] despicable human being” business, it’s long been known that McConnell has no spine. (Tackett also reports that in between acquitting Trump and endorsing his third run for office, McConnell said, “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather be criticized by than this sleazeball. Every time he takes a shot at me, I think it’s good for my reputation.”)
Anyway, just when you thought the Senate minority leader couldn’t get any more pathetic, in a statement to the Associated Press, he said, of his comments trashing Trump: “Whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now.” Which doesn’t actually make McConnell sound better; it just confirms that the people at the upper echelons of the Republican party are all shameless hacks.
