If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell thought recognizing Joe Biden as president-elect would be enough to give Republicans political cover to follow suit and draw a line against President Trump’s claims of election fraud, then he did not take into account the inhabitants of MAGA world.
His actions triggered a deluge of accusations of treason from high-profile Trump supporters on Twitter and from voters who see a Republican establishment closing ranks.
Blake Marnell, a familiar sight at campaign rallies as the “wall guy” dressed in his brick-print suit, said Trump still had multiple avenues to retain the presidency.
“If I have a choice of keeping President Trump or keeping Mitch McConnell … at this point, it’s the president,” he said.
His comments illustrate the way in which Trump has mobilized an army of supporters who consider themselves Trumpers first, Republicans second. And the angry response highlights how the party hierarchy must reckon with a new breed of supporters during the next election cycle.
No doubt mindful of those factors, McConnell himself came in for criticism for taking so long to acknowledge Biden’s election victory.
On Tuesday, 38 days after Election Day and one day after the Electoral College confirmed Biden’s win, he gave way.
“The Electoral College has spoken. So, today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said from the Senate floor.
At the same time, it was reported that the majority leader had quietly been asking his fellow Republican senators not to join any further of Trump’s attempts to overturn the result.
His words brought a fiery response from the president himself.
“Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up,” he said on Twitter. “Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
A co-founder of the Tea Party movement, Michael Johns, agreed and said he was disappointed that McConnell had made no mention of the allegations of fraud. Instead, he was acting on the Electoral College deadline, rather than on the basis of the evidence.
“That’s what I think is most disturbing to a lot of Trump conservatives who are looking on, who have read these affidavits,” he said, “and see a Department of Justice, the FBI, and now a good number of Republicans who have dismissed these allegations, not made reference to them and clearly haven’t read them.”
A string of high-profile names took to Twitter to express their anger with McConnell in less nuanced terms.
.@realDonaldTrump millions & millions & millions of Patriots stand behind, alongside & in front of you during this crucible moment in US History where our very Republic is on the line. We won’t fail or cower like some in the Republican Party have shown.#FightLikeAFlynn https://t.co/WurxjIf0se
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) December 15, 2020
Incoming Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has promoted QAnon and its pro-Trump conspiracies, wrote: “Every ‘Republican’ that isn’t fighting for @realDonaldTrump’s 2020 landslide victory is supporting the Chinese Communist Party takeover of America.”
And Trump’s election lawyer Lin Wood wrote: “McConnell just wants power, influence, & money. He is willing to sell America to get what he wants. McConnell is a traitor to American Patriots. His day of judgment is coming.”
The likes of recently pardoned former national security adviser Mike Flynn, Fox News host Mark Levin, and conservative radio president Sebastian Gorka all weighed in to condemn McConnell.
The fear, said Marnell, who is planning to attend more “stop the steal rallies,” is a Republican establishment returning to its bad old ways, distancing itself from its grassroots.
“They always saw President Trump as an outlier, which he was,” he said. “They always saw him as not of their party.”
“And they want to get back to what for them is business as usual. They want to get back to cozy deals with companies and the type of legislation, the type of Washington existence, they had in the past.”
