Mitch McConnell, then the Senate Majority leader, was looped into Donald Trump’s plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election but opted for a “strategic silence,” according to a forthcoming book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
An except from the book, “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” details a conference call Trump had with McConnell and other GOP leaders in December 2020.
Trump believed he could convince Georgia governor Brian Kemp to de-certify Joe Biden’s win in the state, which would trigger similar actions in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“I’ve been calling folks in those states and they’re with us,” Trump said, according to a section of the book obtained by CNN.
McConnell was mum on the call, but once it ended, he told colleagues “We’ve got to stay focused on Georgia,” a reference to the two Senate runoff elections that would decide which party controlled the Senate.
McConnell’s silence was inspired by his fear that any pushback would inspire Trump to torpedo the run-offs. In other words, if the GOP wouldn’t support Trump’s power grab, he’d spite the party on his way out the door.
The GOP eventually lost both contests, handing the upper chamber – and a unified government – to Democrats.
McConnell told Martin and Burns that Trump’s fixation on Kemp dovetailed with finding a scapegoat for the failed run-off campaigns.
“He’s always setting up somebody to blame it on,” McConnell said.
According to CNN, McConnell and Trump haven’t spoke since mid-December 2020, after McConnell tacitly refuted some of Trump’s election lies by acknowledging Biden’s victory.
Yet, McConnell recently re-iterated that he’d support Trump in 2024 if he becomes the GOP presidential candidate.
