Donald Trump has launched a scathing personal attack on Mitch McConnell, calling him a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack,” days after the top Republican Senator and former close ally voted to acquit the ex-US president in his second impeachment trial.
McConnell, who led the Senate for years, voted to acquit Trump in his impeachment trial last week. But the 78-year-old Senator from Kentucky then attacked Trump as “morally responsible” for the deadly US Capitol riot on January 6.
Trump and McConnell — the two most powerful men in the Republican Party — have been estranged in recent months after working closely during the former president’s four years in office. But things changed after Trump lost the November 3 election to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
“Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,” Trump said in the terse statement on Tuesday against the Senate Minority Leader.
“He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our country. Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership,” the 74-year-old former president said.
Trump asserted that McConnell’s shortcomings had contributed to the Republican Party’s loss of the Senate majority.