Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he hasn’t spoken to former President Donald Trump in more than 14 months, during his fellow Republican’s chaotic, waning days in the White House.
McConnell, a senator from Kentucky, said he and Trump last spoke around the time Congress ratified the Electoral College votes early in the morning on Jan. 7, 2021, an action that came after the Jan. 6 riot in which supporters of the then-president tried to prevent Joe Biden’s victory from being made official.
The Washington Post reported that Trump attempted to call McConnell on the morning of the deadly riot, ahead of a seven-hour gap in the former president’s phone records, as he ramped up pressure on lawmakers to reject the congressional certification of the election results.
A McConnell aide confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the leader rejected the calls.
While McConnell declined to weigh in on why he opted against corresponding with Trump, he asserted they have not communicated since December 2020.
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“I’ve said repeatedly the last time I spoke to the president was the day after the Electoral College declared President Biden the winner. I publicly congratulated President Biden on his victory and received a phone call after that from President Trump, and that is the last time we spoke,” he told reporters Tuesday.
McConnell, who has had a turbulent relationship with Trump, with the former president repeatedly taking aim at the Kentucky Republican since leaving office, voted to certify the election results and strongly condemned Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Following McConnell’s congratulatory words to Biden on the Senate floor, Trump “spewed expletives” at the leader and accused him of being disloyal, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book, Peril. McConnell reportedly told Trump: “You lost the election. The Electoral College has spoken.”
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His comments come as the Jan. 6 select committee continues its investigation into whether Trump contacted confidants using burner phones or other back-channel forms of communication during the course of the attack on the Capitol, with members on the panel arguing the lapse in time shown on the phone records raises questions about a possible cover-up.
