No matter how low your opinion of Sen. Mitch McConnell — and his chronic, craven, cynicism — he still somehow finds a way to shock and amaze.
This week, The Associated Press reported on excerpts from a new biography of McConnell by the AP’s deputy Washington bureau chief Michael Tackett. According to Tackett, the Republican senator from Kentucky privately called Trump “stupid,” “ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” and said of the 2020 election that the American people had had enough of Trump’s “misrepresentations” and his “daily stream of lies and “fired him.”
It’s not as if Trump has shown any appreciation to McConnell for his devotion.
McConnell even expressed support for special prosecutor Jack Smith’s efforts to hold Trump responsible for his actions on Jan. 6. If the former president “hasn’t committed indictable offenses,” McConnell told Tackett in an interview, “I don’t know what one is.” In addition, McConnell made clear that he believes Trump “inspired” the violence that took place on Jan. 6 and said, “I just hope that he’ll have to pay a price for it.”
Yet McConnell’s private antipathy toward Trump has not stopped him from doing the one thing that could prevent Trump from paying any price for his actions on Jan. 6 — endorsing his bid for another term in the White House.
If Trump wins in November, he will undoubtedly shut down the prosecution that led to his indictment — the one that McConnell has said he privately supports.
It’s not as if Trump has shown any appreciation to McConnell for his devotion. Trump has repeatedly and publicly vilified McConnell, calling him an “Old Broken Crow” who, he says, “is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China” (an accusation that will undoubtedly come as a shock to President Biden and his fellow Democrats). Trump has also spewed anti-Asian epithets at McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who is of Chinese descent and served as transportation secretary in the Trump administration.
Trump’s adoring fans have followed his lead. Even though McConnell ensured passage of Trump’s 2017 tax cut bill and oversaw the GOP takeover of the Supreme Court and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, he was met with resounding boos from the delegates at this summer’s Republican National Convention. And here’s the best part: the party faithful heckled McConnell as he pledged the support of Kentucky’s delegation to Trump’s presidential bid.
No matter how much Trump and his supporters vilify and attack him, McConnell’s devotion is stupefyingly consistent. As Tackett’s new book reveals, McConnell almost voted to convict Trump after his second impeachment. If he had done so — and rallied enough Republicans behind him — it likely would have stopped Trump from ever running again for public office, and the GOP would have been rid of a man who McConnell privately considers “despicable.”
McConnell couldn’t go through it and instead criticized Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 after he voted to acquit Trump. It was that action that led to the former president’s now unceasing personal attacks.
Make no mistake: There is a singular explanation for Trump’s continued viability as a candidate.
It would be one thing if McConnell’s support for Trump were driven by personal ambition. That would be awful and cynical — but it matches the attitudes of many other Republican politicians, including Trump’s own running mate JD Vance, who have publicly supported Trump even while privately vilifying him.
Indeed, McConnell referenced this sentiment gap when asked for comment about his private remarks. “Whatever I may have said about President Trump,” he said in a statement, “pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now.”
Allow me to translate that: We’re all a bunch of cynical, feckless cowards who will subsume our private judgment for our public ambitions. But at least we’re united in our cravenness.
However, unlike Vance and Graham, McConnell’s political path is nearing its conclusion. He is stepping down as Senate Republican leader at the end of this year and is unlikely to run for re-election in 2026. He doesn’t have to worry about alienating Trump’s supporters.
Seemingly, the only possible explanation for McConnell’s continued acquiescence to Trump’s humiliation is that, as a lifelong Republican, he can’t imagine coming out against a Republican president. For McConnell, loyalty to his party is greater than his support for his country.
McConnell’s arc reminds me of a story I heard four years ago about Sen. Lamar Alexander, from McConnell’s neighboring state of Tennessee. During Trump’s first impeachment trial, Alexander was on the fence about supporting calls by Democrats to subpoena witnesses who could testify directly to Trump’s malfeasance. Alexander, who had never been a dyed-in-the-wool conservative and had already announced his retirement, didn’t have to worry about facing MAGA-besotted voters in Tennessee. Yet, he still voted against the subpoenas.
When I asked a Tennessee political observer why Alexander was incapable of doing the right thing, knowing that he wouldn’t face the wrath of the voters, he told me that every time Alexander attended a local GOP event or even something as anodyne as a Rotary Club meeting, he’d be reminded that he sided with the Democrats against Trump. Why, he suggested, would Alexander want the aggravation?
The same likely goes for McConnell. If he had failed to endorse Trump or had come in support of conviction in 2021, that’s all anyone in Kentucky would remember about him — even after McConnell’s years of unstinting devotion to the GOP.
For years, there’s been a raging debate in political circles as to who or what is responsible for Trump’s political rise. But make no mistake: There is a singular explanation for Trump’s continued viability as a candidate — a party of craven and cynical politicians who would rather endorse a narcissistic, ill-tempered and despicable liar than do what they know to be right.