Breaks his silence to hit back at Mitch McConnell. Actually, I'm surprised it took him this long to attack Mitcch.
Former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday made a slashing and lengthy attack on Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, calling him a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” and arguing that the party would suffer losses in the future if he remained in charge.
“If Republican senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,” Mr. Trump said.
The 600-word statement, coming three days after the Senate acquitted him in his second impeachment trial, was trained solely on Mr. McConnell and sought to paint Mr. Trump as the best leader of the G.O.P. going forward.
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Trump chose to focus on Mr. McConnell as he broke his silence after an unusually lengthy period of silence by the standards of the former president, who was permanently barred from his formerly favorite medium — Twitter — last month because of tweets that he posted during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
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One person close to the former president said his initial version of the statement was more incendiary than what was released publicly. A second person said the statement was issued instead of the news conference that Mr. Trump had initially planned to give on Tuesday; some aides had feared he would go off track and say even harsher things extemporaneously.
NYT
Whatever gave them that idea?
“The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm,” Mr. Trump said. “McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from majority leader to minority leader, and it will only get worse.”
Mr. Trump offered up some new taunts: “The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle — they’ve never had it so good — and they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell’s Beltway First agenda or Biden’s America Last.”
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Mr. Trump claimed credit for Mr. McConnell’s victory in his own Senate race last year, and took a swipe at Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who worked for the Trump administration as the transportation secretary.
“McConnell has no credibility on China because of his family’s substantial Chinese business holdings. He does nothing on this tremendous economic and military threat,” Mr. Trump said.
“He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our country,” Mr. Trump said, adding that “where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First.”
Another source familiar with the situation said Jason Miller, a top Trump adviser, took the lead in writing the final version of the statement.
A person familiar with the crafting of the statement confirmed that it could have been far worse. An earlier draft mocked McConnell for having multiple chins, the person said. But Trump was convinced by advisers to take it out.
“There was also a lot of repetitive stuff and definitely something about him having too many chins but not enough smarts,” the person said.
Politico
“My only regret is that McConnell ‘begged’ for my strong support and endorsement before the great people of Kentucky in the 2020 election, and I gave it to him,” Trump said.
Guardian
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