Because Democrats Ralph Warnock and Jon Ossoff won the special runoff election in Georgia on January 5, Mitch McConnell finds himself as the Senate Minority Leader.
Donald Trump, who cares only about himself — and very little else — took over the Republican Party with his undisguised brashness and his Total Narcissism.
There’s a civil war going on within the Republican Party because there’s a so-called establishment wing, lead by McConnell, and the Trumpistic wing, lead by Guess Who.
McConnell should clearly have voted to convict Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors for urging his deplorables, lead by the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, to storm the Capitol in a violent insurrection on January 6, but he didn’t, claiming, baselessly, that it was a mere technicality, namely, that when the Senate voted on conviction, Joe Biden was President. But if he had voted to convict, carrying his Conference with him, Trump would be ineligible to run against Biden in 2024.
As soon as the vote was taken, and with Trump acquitted, McConnell took to the floor and lambasted Trump in stark terms, saying that Trump was morally guilty of inciting the insurrection.
Predictably, Trump lashed right back, from his pouthole at Mar-a-Lago, and called McConnell an unsmiling political hack.
And now Mr. Walking A Tightrope, Unsmiling Mitch, says that if Trump wins the Republican nomination in 2024, he’ll have Trump’s back (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/25/mcconnell-would-support-trump-2024-471672).
So we asked our Chief Congressonal correspondent, associate solitary reporter Melissa Smith, and our DC-based associate solitary reporter, Keith Coleman, to weigh in.
“SR,” they said, in unison, “the only thing Mitch cares about is his version of the Republican Party. He’ll do anything he can to get back in power.”