You don’t need to be told that Donald Trump is going bonkers without Twitter, although Parler is now back up and running. Maybe that will provide some solace. The New York Times is reporting that Trump’s initial take down of Mitch McConnell was even more brutal than the statement he released.
One person close to the former president said his initial version of the statement was more incendiary than what was released publicly. A second person said the statement was issued instead of the news conference that Mr. Trump had initially planned to give on Tuesday; some aides had feared he would go off track and say even harsher things extemporaneously.
In the statement, Mr. Trump resorted to insults about Mr. McConnell’s acumen and ability, as the former majority leader has tried to move on from the Trump era, and faulted him for Republicans losing their majority.
“The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm,” Mr. Trump said. “McConnell’s dedication to business as usual, status quo policies, together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from majority leader to minority leader, and it will only get worse.”
Mr. Trump offered up some new taunts: “The Democrats and Chuck Schumer play McConnell like a fiddle — they’ve never had it so good — and they want to keep it that way! We know our America First agenda is a winner, not McConnell’s Beltway First agenda or Biden’s America Last.”
While Mr. McConnell has faulted the former president for the party’s losses last month in both U.S. Senate races in Georgia, Mr. Trump maintained that it was because Republican voters were angry that the party’s officials did not do more to address his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
We might be falling for good cop (Mitch), bad cop (Trump) here. The issue right now is GOP doesn’t currently jive with Fortune 500 size donors so this public drama creates the perception Republicans need to say: “see, we’re separating from Trump.”
— Do It For Peks (@westnashresist) February 16, 2021
Did the Republicans never watch Faustus?
“…….together with his lack of political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality, has rapidly driven him from majority leader to minority leader, and it will only get worse.”
Perhaps, but Ol’ Moscow Mitch still has his office rite??? *condescending smirk*
Obviously self awareness is not Trump-O’s strong suit.
A house divided…
“While Mr. McConnell has faulted the former president for the party’s losses last month in both U.S. Senate races in Georgia, Mr. Trump maintained that it was because Republican voters were angry that the party’s officials did not do more to address his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.”
Hmm. And which person campaigned in Georgia for both GOP candidates the day before the run-off election while also trying to coerce that state’s governor and secretary of state to “find” more votes for HIM? I mean, even though Donald Trump got slightly fewer votes in November than incumbent GOP Senator David Perdue (Trump got 2,461,854 votes out of 4,999,960 total cast while Perdue got 2,462,617 out of 4,952,175 votes reported; that’s 763 fewer votes despite 47,785 more votes cast in the Presidential race) and he got far more votes than the other incumbent GOP Senator, Kelly Loeffler (only 1,273,214 out of 4,914,361 votes reported but she also faced 19 challengers; Trump’s race attracted 85,599 more votes than Loeffler’s race). And when Trump visited Georgia, campaigning for both GOPers, BOTH run-offs drew roughly a half million FEWER votes (Perdue’s race was down by 467,273 votes and Perdue’s numbers were down by 247,638; Loeffler’s race was down by 429,407 while her numbers were up simply because she only had 1 challenger but she still lost by more than 93,000 votes). And, of course, Trump had spent the time between the November election and the January run-off elections whining and complaining about the massive “voter fraud” in Georgia and that the election had been rigged and, basically telling his followers there wasn’t any need to vote in January because the election was going to be rigged for the Democrats. And when he got to the rally for “his” candidates, he spent most of his time talking about the November race and how HE had been cheated of a win and that Georgia’s governor and secretary of state were complicit in the fraud and they wouldn’t help him win and yaddayadda instead of actually campaigning FOR the candidates he was supposed to be there supporting.
McConnell, on the other hand, was doing what he could to send GOP funds to buy ads for both candidates and urging GOP voters to turn out despite any alleged voter fraud.
So, it’s no wonder that Trump would blame McConnell. Trump can NEVER accept the blame for anything.
His remaining staff had the good sense to edit the screed to fix the misspellings, if not the random caps, and remove the stuff that would be lawsuit fodder.
Who lost the Senate, it wasn’t Mitch, he won his seat back, it was trump, when he lost his.
Good cop, bad cop is way too sophisticated for Trump’s diminished level of understanding. And Mitch just wants a soft landing in the likely event that he stays, ahem, MINORITY LEADER after 2022. Neither care about donors unless it’s THEIR pockets being filled.
I’d go more for ‘bad cop, even worse cop’ really.
Having said that, the nexto GQP convention should be worth investing in a few helpings of popcorn