Posted on 02/13/2021 4:08:31 PM PST by RandFan
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Saturday unleashed blistering criticism of former President Trump, blaming him for sparking the attack on the Capitol while also explaining why he didn't vote for a conviction.
McConnell also suggested that Trump could face criminal prosecution for his actions.
"There's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people that stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," McConnell said.
"And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole, which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on the Earth," McConnell added.
McConnell's remarks came after the Senate fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict Trump. Though McConnell voted to acquit him, arguing it fell outside the Senate's jurisdiction, his remarks are a stinging rebuke of Trump's actions and rhetoric.
McConnell said the mob breached the Capitol because it was fed "wild falsehoods" by Trump, who was "angry he had lost an election."
McConnell, like most Senate Republicans, refused to acknowledge for weeks that President Biden had won the election. But he publicly congratulated Biden on the floor in mid-December after the Electoral College certified the victory.
McConnell marked the day as when Trump "opened up a new chapter of wilder and more unfounded claims."
"The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise," the GOP leader said, adding that Trump "seemed determined to either overturn the voters decision or else torch our institutions on the way out."
Trump's legal team defended his actions on Jan. 6, when he repeated false claims that the election was "stolen" and encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol just as former Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers were counting the Electoral College votes.
Trump's team also argued that the former president did not realize that Pence was in danger.
McConnell rejected those claims, noting that attack played out on live television.
"We know that he was watching the same live television as the rest of us. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. ... The president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He didn't take steps so federal law he could be faithfully executed and order restored," McConnell said.
But the GOP leader also said that impeaching Trump falls outside the Senate's jurisdiction because Trump is no longer in office. McConnell voted twice previously to try to declare the trial unconstitutional, an argument that has been rejected by a swath of legal scholars.
Though the House impeached Trump while he was still in office, the Senate trial didn't start until after Biden was sworn in. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to get McConnell to bring the Senate back into session early to start the trial before Trump left office, but the GOP leader shot down the request.
"The question is moot because former President Trump is constitutionally not eligible," McConnell said.
McConnell, however, hinted that Trump could still face legal repercussions.
"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run. ... Didn't get away with anything yet," McConnell said.
For later.
Mitch knows that his 10% of the Republican Party is evaporating. This is classic extinction burst behavior.
The Lincoln Project, Mitch, Romney and the rest of the country clubbers know that their futures are in the private sector. They are 100% responsible for their own failure.
Nobody cares what you think Turtle.
Oh by the way, there are going to be a lot fewer of your RINOs around after the next election.
Haley will never be president.
+++++++++++++++++
She may have been a leaker. Something big was leaked. Then I watched to see who would be fired or quit. Soon after the leak, Haley resigned. Trump sorta choked when he said that she was a “good person”.
Another back stabber.
McConnell just destroyed any life in the Republican party....time for me to walk away.
___________________________________
Don’t leave the party, kick his wrinkled arse out of office.
I felt the same way you feel, then I realized that we have power and numbers. The RINO’s are no longer welcome in the GOP. We boot them out. Put them in the snowbank. It is -10 outside not counting the wind. Hey China Husband, I’ve go a snowbank
with your name on it. You puss.y FU MM FU
Yes he has and won’t you be among the first to exhort people to re-elect them?
“It sounds like he is calling for Trump to be tried in a civilian court. “
THAT is exactly how I interpreted what he said. That will likely be the next attacks they use against President Trump.
Oct. 20, 2020
Very impolitic of Mitch.
Which is a rare word to describe him!
I suspect a “good cop, bad cop” vibe from the GOP to their Big donors.
“I eagerly await the FR GOPE sunshine pumpers to explain this crock of Republican establishment BS away and why we have to have their beloved party of snakes like this.”
They can’t defend McConnell he’s a lowlife POS.
I say this as a guy that was fairly neutral on McConnell over the years. This backstabbing asshole is done politically, he’ll spend the next 6 years filling his bank account with dollars and yuans.Then its out to pasture.
McConnell is ashamed because he knows that he deserves a bullet in the back of his head for his treason.
Yertle the Tertle, back to his oily slimey reptilian ways.
He was all fake nice-nice as long as Trump’s charisma and strength benefitted him. Yertle has reverted to his true despicable LOSER self, knowing that this is his last term and he won’t be held accountable by voters.
I wonder if Kentucky as a state can censure him or expel him from the state GOP party. I hope they do something.
I wish they would but don’t expect anything. McConnell is an institution in KY and wont be going anywhere unless he retires or dies.
Al Gore, Senior, was an institution in Tennessee but we finally wised up and voted the scumbag out. At least we voted against his son in the Prez race.
If Trump or a Trump acolyte runs on a MAGA agenda in 2024, we’ll need disgruntled Republicans voting in the primaries.If they don’t we’ll get a Romney/Sasse type working his way towards the nomination.
It probably doesn’t matter because if the Democrats get super majorities over the next 4 years.( because of a divided Republican Party) I see them splintering all over place and showing what a hodgepodge, of ungovernable derelicts they really are.
The Democrats are held together by hate the Republican President, no matter how moderate or conciliatory the person is.
Make the Never Trumpers go to a new party.
This a$$hole is what's wrong with DC. Why Mitch have you not pushed for Hillary to be prosecuted for destruction of evidence? Why have you not pushed for prosecution of those who committed espionage on a presidential candidate then a president-elect? Why are you not pushing for prosecution of a certain rep who liked to share a bed with a communist spy? Why are you not pushing for prosecution of Joseph Biden for bribing the Ukrainian government with US tax dollars? Why are you not pushing for prosecution of the Biden family, Hunter and all for profiteering? You did hear about his laptop, didn't you? Your hypocrisy stinks to high heaven senator and you are a fine, fine argument for term limits.
“Make the Never Trumpers go to a new party.”
Yep,
That’ll be my position going into 2022 & 2024.
Nobody on Free Republic, should ever have to support candidates like Bush,McCain,and Romney ever again.I chose not to in 2004,2008 & 2012, before that I was a “Party Man.”
I have no regrets, and won’t be supporting “milquetoast” candidates in the future.
We need to get rid of the Turtle and his communist loving wife.
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