Political Commentary
The Two Faces of Mitch
Senator McConnell tries to have it both ways
Mitch McConnell is a “new man.”
On February 13, 2021, the former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the devout Republican, voted to acquit Trump for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Afterward, the trial concluded, the current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, hoping for the chance to once again become Senate Majority Leader, promptly turned over a new leaf, now speaking “truth” to power.
“New Mitch,” in the unfamiliar role of a leader with integrity, made a speech on the Senate floor, telling the world that Trump helped instigate the insurrection. Because of Trump’s lies, he said, American citizens attacked their government on Jan. 6 and used terrorism, attempting to halt the democratic process.
President Donald Trump fed American citizens wild falsehoods. Why would an American president do such a despicable thing? McConnell gave us the answer.
Trump was mad about losing an election.
In the just-concluded trial, the House Democrats' impeachment managers gave ample proof that Trump’s blatant falsehoods about the election, repeated over and over for months, and his Jan. 6 speech filled with “fight like hell” rhetoric incited a mob to attack their government.
Five people died during the Jan. 6 attack, including Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick. About 70 other officers suffered injuries. Two officers committed suicide after the insurrection riot.
“Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty,” said McConnell.
During the riot, as the members of the mob carrying Trump flags and banners were beating the police and breaching perimeters at the Capitol, Trump happily watched the chaotic scene on television.
“He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election!” said McConnell.
That’s the same thing Democrat impeachment managers said again and again, as they called for McConnell and other senators to convict Trump.
Yet McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky, did not vote for Trump’s conviction. Though after the verdict, he said Trump could still face criminal charges. Trump did not get away with anything — yet, said McConnell.
“We have a criminal justice system. We have civil litigation,” Mitch said. “And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either.”
McConnell called Trump’s post-election rants a “growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated President kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”
The newly enlightened McConnell described Trump as the “one person” who engineered a “campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked” the Jan. 6 insurrection.
McConnell wanted us to ignore the Trump enablers who supported Trump’s many disinformation campaigns perpetrated on the nation over the past several years, including the “Big Lie” that Trump won the 2020 election.
He wanted us to forget that he, Mitch McConnell, was one enabler. He wanted us to look over the many others in the Republican Party who helped Trump fabricate his falsehoods, including the “fine” Senator Marsha Blackburn, who I am sad to say, represents my state of Tennessee.
When McConnell put on his fresh face and finally talked about Trump’s “dereliction of duty,” perhaps it was in time to save his position as a power broker in the now divided Republican Party.
But it was too little too late to save the lives of the police officers and others who died because of the Jan. 6 insurrection riot.
See McConnell’s full statement from Feb. 13 here: