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Although Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell announced his endorsement of presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the 2024 elections back in March, it is well known that he has been critical of the former President.
Knewz.com has learned that a new biography compiling personal oral histories narrated by McConnell himself to the author revealed several comments by the Republican Senator about Trump.
According to excerpts from the yet-to-be-released biography, McConnell called former President Trump "stupid" and "ill-tempered" in the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential elections, and labeled him a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist.”
McConnell had also blamed the former President for allegedly "inciting" the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot which sought to overturn the results of the 2020 elections and prevent Joe Biden from being sworn in as the new Commander-in-Chief.
At the time, the Republican Senator had also publicly acknowledged the official outcome of the elections which saw President Biden emerge victorious—an outcome still contested by Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
The biography details that during the January 6 riots, McConnell was holed up in a secure location along with other Congressional leaders. It has been reported that he kept trying to contact then-Vice President Mike Pence and military officials for reinforcements as supporters of Trump attacked the Capitol building.
When the Senate resumed deliberations regarding the certification of President Biden's victory, McConnell said in a speech that “this failed attempt to obstruct the Congress, this failed insurrection, only underscores how crucial the task before us is for our republic.”
A month after the attack, McConnell held Trump “ practically and morally responsible ” for the Capitol riots and the death and destruction the incident unleashed.
It has been reported that the senator congratulated President Biden on his win and warned fellow Republicans not to challenge the election results.
The biography, however, offers a more inside perspective of how McConnell felt about Trump's loss in 2020. According to the soon-to-be-published book, McConnell privately commented that “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump left office.
He added that Trump’s behavior “only underscores the good judgment of the American people. They’ve had just enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”
"And for a narcissist like him... that’s been really hard to take, and so his behavior since the election has been even worse, by far, than it was before, because he has no filter now at all," the Republican Senator added.
Prior to the aforementioned comments, McConnell was quoted as saying that Trump is “stupid as well as being ill-tempered and can’t even figure out where his own best interests lie.”
It has been reported that the former President was responsible for hindering a COVID aid package at the time, despite the package having bipartisan support behind it, moving the Republican Senator to call Trump a "despicable human being."
Per the biography, McConnell commented about the matter, saying, "This despicable human being... is sitting on this package of relief that the American people desperately need."
It is worth noting that Trump has often demanded credit for the way his administration handled the COVID situation for the brief period before Biden took over the White House.
It has been reported that McConnell and Trump were not on speaking terms after he supported Biden's win in the 2020 elections. However, the two opened a dialogue regarding a possible endorsement of the former President in the 2024 Presidential race earlier this year.
In March 2024, McConnell announced his endorsement of Trump in a brief statement, making him the last GOP Congress leader to "fall in line with Trump."
"It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States," McConnell said in his statement.
"It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support," he added.
The biography, entitled The Price of Power, is written by The Associated Press's deputy Washington bureau chief Michael Tackett and draws its material from almost three decades of the Republican Senator’s recorded diaries and years of interviews.
The tell-all book is set to be released on October 29, a week before the 2024 Presidential elections.