McConnell defends past Trump critique: 'Pales in comparison to what JD Vance and others said'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday defended comments he made about Donald Trump after the 2020 presidential election, arguing “whatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him.”

The Associated Press reported on McConnell’s harsh criticism of the former president following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and subsequent efforts to overturn the result.

“Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was ‘stupid as well as being ill-tempered,’ a ‘despicable human being’ and a ‘narcissist,’ according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month,” AP reported Thursday, citing excerpts from “The Price of Power,” an upcoming biography on McConnell by deputy AP Washington bureau chief Michael Tackett.

According to AP, McConnell at the time insisted “it’s not just the Democrats who are counting the days” until Trump’s departure from the White House, adding “for a narcissist like [Trump], 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.”

Now, the outgoing Senate GOP leader argues his statements no longer reflect his status with the former president, citing the evolution of Trump’s relationship with other prominent Republicans, including Vance and Graham.

Politico reports:

Republican Sens. JD Vance and Lindsey Graham have not always seen eye to eye with the former president, with Vance saying in 2016 that he “can’t stomach” Trump when describing who to vote for and Graham calling Trump a “jackass” while the two were rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015. Both senators have since made amends with Trump.

But, as McConnell said in a statement Thursday, they’re “all on the same team now.”