WASHINGTON (AP) – In his speech Saturday from the Senate floor, Sen. Mitch McConnell made a scathing denunciation of Donald Trump, calling him “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. .
But in his vote on Trump’s ouster, McConnell said he was “not guilty” because he said a former president could not be tried in the Senate.
Washington’s most powerful Republican and Senate minority leader used his strongest language to date to oust Trump minutes after the Senate acquitted the former president, voting 57-43 to condemn him, but falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to find him guilty. Seven Republicans voted to condemn.
Clearly angry, the longest-serving Republican leader in the Senate said Trump’s actions around the attack on Congress were “a disgrace and a disgrace to duty.” He even noted that while Trump is now out of office, he remains subject to the country’s criminal and civil laws.
“He hasn’t come up with anything yet,” said McConnell, who turns 79 next Saturday and has led the Republican Senate party since 2007.
It was an incredibly bitter punishment for Trump by McConnell, who could have used much of the same speech if he had decided to condemn Trump.
But by voting for acquittal, McConnell and his fellow Republicans left the party closed in their struggle to define themselves after Trump’s defeat in November. Extremely loyal pro-Trump Republicans, and the party base they represent, clash with more traditional Republicans who believe the former president is harming the party’s national appeal.
A guilty vote by McConnell, who would probably have accompanied some Republicans with him, would have marked a more direct effort to rip off Trump’s party.
This could have sparked the main challenges of 2022 against Republican Party incumbents, complicating Republicans ’efforts to get a Senate majority by nominating far-right, less eligible candidates. McConnell has been defending these candidates for years.
“Time will take care of it one way or another,” R-Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said of the course of the match. “But remember, to be a leader you have to have followers. That’s how we’ll find out. “
After Saturday’s vote, furious Democrats launched their own attacks on McConnell and the Republican Party. Speaking to reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, mocked the “cowardly group of Republicans” in the Senate, who said they feared “respecting the institution in which they served.”
He also said McConnell had created a self-fulfilling prophecy, which forced the start of the Senate trial after Trump left the White House keeping the chamber out of session. Republicans say Pelosi could have triggered the proceedings earlier by handing over the official dismissal documents earlier.
McConnell had pointed out last month that he was open to finding Trump guilty, which in itself was an open sign of his alienation from the former president. He informed GOP senators of how he would vote in a private email early Saturday, saying, “Despite being a close call, I am convinced that dismissals are primarily a withdrawal tool and therefore we have no jurisdiction.” .
He extended his justification to the Senate floor after Saturday’s nominal convocation, making clear his enmity with Trump’s actions.
“There’s no doubt, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the event that day,” he said.
Even before the November election, Trump repeatedly claimed that if he lost it, it would be due to a fraud by Democrats, a false accusation that he continued to assert until he left office.
He convened sympathizers in Washington for Jan. 6, the day Congress would formally certify his loss to Electoral College Joe Biden, and then used a provocative speech near the White House to urge them to leave. at the Capitol, as this count was underway. Its sponsors fought violently against police and entered the building, forcing lawmakers to flee, temporarily interrupting the vote count and resulting in five deaths. The visceral, bloody images of that day were at the core of the Democratic indictment case against Trump.
McConnell called the assault a “predictable consequence” of Trump’s use of the presidency by Trump, calling it “the largest megaphone on planet Earth.” Instead of dismissing the riot police, McConnell accused Trump of “praising criminals” and appearing determined to cancel the election “or otherwise set our institutions on fire at the outset.”
The 36-year-old Senate veteran maneuvered during Trump’s four-year term as a captain steering a ship across a rocky strait in stormy seas. Annoyed at times by vindictive presidential tweets, McConnell used to say nothing about many of Trump’s outrageous comments.
He ended up leading the Senate to victories such as the 2017 tax cut and the confirmations of three Supreme Court judges and more than 200 more federal judges.
Their relationship, based more on experience than admiration, collapsed after Trump’s denial of the Nov. 3 defeat and relentless efforts to reverse voters ’verdict with their baseless claims that the Democrats stole the election fraudulently.
It completely faded last month, after Republicans lost control of the Senate with two defeats in Georgia that blamed Trump and the savage attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. On the day of the riot, McConnell confronted “thugs, mobs or threats” and described the attack as “this failed insurrection.”
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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