Donald Trump in blistering attack on Republican Mitch McConnell: ‘Dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack’

Matt Watts17 February 2021

Donald Trump launched a blistering personal attack on senior Republican Mitch McConnell, calling him a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack”.

In a statement released by Mr Trump’s political action committee, the former president said: “The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm.”

The statement is the latest sign of deepening divisions over the future of the party, after Mr McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, said the former president was “morally responsible” for the US Capitol riots, despite voting to acquit him at his Senate impeachment trial.

The statement added: “Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”

A spokesperson for Mr McConnell did not immediately return requests for comment.

Mr McConnell had remained loyal to Mr Trump during nearly all of his four years in office, when the pair were the two most powerful members of the Republican Party.

But, after Mr Trump spent months making baseless claims that election fraud cost him the November election against Democrat Joe Biden, Mr McConnell said that overturning the vote because of objections from the losing side would see American democracy enter “a death spiral”.

Mr McConnell said he voted to acquit Mr Trump because the Senate has no jurisdiction over an ex-president - even though he had rejected a push from Democrats to start the trial when Mr Trump was still in office.

But in a speech on the Senate floor, Mr McConnell implied the former president should face criminal and civil litigation because he was “still liable for everything he did while in office”.

In his statement, Mr Trump criticised Mr McConnell for failing to do more to back his unfounded claims of election fraud.

He also said Mr McConnell “begged” for his endorsement in the senator’s home state of Kentucky while running for re-election last year - and suggested he would work to defeat Mr McConnell and his Republican allies, saying he planned to “back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great”.

“This is a big moment for our country,” Mr Trump wrote, “and we cannot let it pass by using third rate ‘leaders’ to dictate our future.”

The feud has prompted concern among some Republicans about the impact it may have on next year’s mid-term elections. The party is trying to regroup having lost the House, the Senate and the presidency.

“I’m more worried about 2022 than I’ve ever been,” Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News. “I don’t want to eat our own,” he added. “We need to knock this off.”

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