This could be Mitch McConnell’s 'worst political' error: journalist

27 October 2024

In a Sunday, October 27 article published by The Atlantic, and adapted from journalist Michael Tackett’s new book, "The Price of Power," Tackett lays out what he believes was "likely the worst political miscalculation of" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) career.

The Republican leader's "goal was to preserve a Senate majority," Tackett writes. McConnell "wanted the energy of Trump’s voters in Senate races, without the baggage of Trump. He gambled on his belief that Trump would fade from the political stage in the aftermath" of January 6. "Instead, Trump reemerged every bit as strong among core supporters."

The deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press explained how McConnell fumbled a law that could help prevent future insurrections.

He writes:

Calls quickly came to investigate the cause of the riot. Polls showed that a majority of Americans supported an inquiry. The House passed bipartisan legislation to create a commission modeled after the one that had examined the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a body that would include an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. Thirty-five Republicans in the House joined Democrats to support the measure.

Then the legislation went to the Senate, and McConnell pivoted. Congressional committees, he said, were capable of conducting the investigation, and the commission was largely a Democratic ploy to 'relitigate' that day and Trump’s role in it. So on May 28, less than six months after his own life had been jeopardized during the riot, he blocked perhaps the nation’s best chance at getting a full accounting of what had happened.

Furthermore, Tackett notes, "More striking was how McConnell approached another potential remedy to deal with Trump: a second impeachment."

While "Democrats pushed to impeach Trump, and the House moved quickly to do so," no one really knew which way the Kentucky lawmaker would go.

"I wish he would have voted to convict Donald Trump, and I think he was convinced that he was entirely guilty," Tackett says Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) told him, emphasizing "that McConnell thought convicting someone no longer in office was a bad precedent."

The Utah senator told Tackett that "he viewed McConnell’s political calculation as being 'that Donald Trump was no longer going to be on the political stage … that Donald Trump was finished politically.'"

Tackett's full article is available here (subscription required).

From Your Site Articles