On Politics

Tue Feb 27 2024

Sudiksha Kochi | Congress, Campaigns and Democracy Reporter

@KochiSudiksha

Hi there OnPolitics readers! Associates of Donald Trump and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell have had conversations about the Kentucky lawmaker endorsing the former president. It's a move that would be a sharp about-face for McConnell, who denounced Trump in scathing terms after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Trump and McConnell have not even spoken since 2020, and they have frequently attacked each other in public, USA TODAY's David Jackson, Riley Beggin and Phillip M. Bailey report. But McConnell is also a consummate party man, and repeatedly suggested he would back the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

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🧊 Trump and McConnell have an icy relationship: They haven't spoken since December 2020, when McConnell acknowledged President Joe Biden as the rightful winner of that year's presidential election. After Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, McConnell delivered a scathing speech saying "the people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president."

❓What's McConnell's strategy? Trump has attacked McConnell for what he calls a lack of loyalty. His attacks have included racist comments about McConnell's wife Elaine Chao , who served Trump as commerce secretary but resigned in the wake of the Jan. 6 violence. But those allies and advisers, however, emphasize that McConnell plays the "long game" and has larger policy goals in mind.