‘We are all on the same team now’: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell defends past remarks on Donald Trump

US Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday addressed the comments he made following the 2020 election, where he privately referred to Donald Trump as “stupid” and “despicable.”
McConnell said, “Whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now.”
According to a report by the the Politico, the remarks, which are nearly four years old, were disclosed in a report featuring excerpts from an upcoming biography on McConnell titled “The Price of Power,” written by Michael Tackett, the outlet’s deputy Washington bureau chief.The book, scheduled for release at the end of the month, is based on extensive interviews with the Senate leader and his recorded diaries.
McConnell made the critical comments about the former president in the lead-up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, as Trump was attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. In private remarks that were recorded, the Kentucky Republican described Trump as “stupid as well as being ill-tempered” and a “despicable human being.
“It’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump leaves office, McConnell said.
“And for a narcissist like him,” McConnell continued, “that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all,” he said
McConnell’s relationship with Trump deteriorated after the longtime Senate leader acknowledged President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. Despite the animosity between the two, McConnell endorsed Trump for president in the 2024 race earlier this year.
Republican Senators JD Vance and Lindsey Graham have also had their differences with the former president. In 2016, Vance expressed his inability to “stomach” Trump when discussing voting preferences, while Graham referred to Trump as a “jackass” during their rivalry for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015. However, both senators have since reconciled with Trump.
In February, McConnell announced his intention to step down as the Senate’s GOP leader, stating that he does not plan to seek another term. He intends to complete his current term, which ends in 2026.