Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he wasn’t tuned into former President Donald Trump’s first public remarks since leaving the White House.
The Kentucky Republican stressed he wants to look forward after a whirlwind couple weeks in which he voted against convicting Trump in his second impeachment trial, said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the Capitol riot in a subsequent speech, and then insisted he would “absolutely” support Trump if he becomes the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
“I didn’t watch it,” McConnell said of Trump’s Conservative Political Action Conference speech over the weekend during which the 45th president repeatedly claimed he won the 2020 election and took aim at GOP House and Senate members who supported his second impeachment.
Asked about his pledge to support Trump if he became the 2024 GOP nominee, McConnell said the Republican Party is “looking forward,” not “backward.”
“I think the actions of the new Democratic administration are unifying the Republican Party,” he said Wednesday on Fox News. “We’ve had some eternal back-and-forth that’s been widely covered, but nothing has unified the Republican Party in both the House and the Senate faster than reacting to this new left-wing administration. We’re looking forward. We’re not going to look backward. We’re looking forward to dealing with the problems America has today, not the problems it had yesterday.”
MCCONNELL WOULD ‘ABSOLUTELY’ SUPPORT TRUMP IF HE WAS THE 2024 GOP NOMINEE
After being shown a clip of Trump’s CPAC speech in which he slammed the Supreme Court for declining to act on election-related lawsuits, McConnell further distanced himself from the former president, suggesting he would not have taken the same course of action.
“The Supreme Court is the most respected institution in the country with the possible exception of the military,” he said. “When they speak, it’s the last word, and it’s been my practice over the years not to attack the Supreme Court for decisions that I don’t like.”
Seven GOP senators voted to convict Trump, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is up for reelection in 2022. McConnell vowed to support her regardless of the former president’s urge for Republicans to reject those who voted in favor of slapping charges against him.
“Yeah, absolutely, we support Sen. Murkowski,” he said. “We support all of our Republican incumbents. She’s in very strong shape in her home state of Alaska. There’s nobody [who’s] gonna come close to beating Lisa Murkowski when she runs for reelection next year.”
McConnell criticized President Biden, railing against the $1.9 trillion dollar coronavirus relief bill that’s set to make its way to the upper chamber in the coming days. The House approved the package on Monday by a 219-212 vote after questions were raised about the effect the bill’s size could have on the U.S. economy.
“It’s wildly out of proportion to where the country stands today,” he said. “This $1.9 trillion bill is the same size as the bill we passed last April right in the middle of the pandemic. This is not the same country we had a year ago. Only 9% of this $1.9 trillion is related to healthcare, and less than 1% of this $1.9 trillion bill is related to vaccines.”
READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER BY CLICKING HERE
The Senate is set to advance the spending package on Wednesday after working out a deal with centrist Democrats.
