Republican civil war as leaders turn on President
THE most powerful Republican in Congress last night turned on Donald Trump as the party started its own civil war.
Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority leader, reportedly believes the President committed impeachable offences and is ‘pleased’ Democrats are acting against him.
After four years of standing by the President, including helping him survive his first impeachment last year, Mr McConnell has had enough, the New York Times reported.
He sees this impeachment as a chance to purge the Republican party of Trumpism, sources said, although a substantial number of his colleagues remain loyal to the controversial president.
Another senior Republican to come out strongly against Mr Trump is Liz Cheney, the third most senior House Republican.
The daughter of former vicepresident Dick Cheney said she backed impeachment because it was a ‘vote of conscience’.
Mr McConnell has largely bitten his tongue throughout the four years Mr Trump has been in charge, refusing to rein him in while helping efforts such as tax cuts and the conservative packing of the Supreme Court.
But the Kentucky senator now reportedly ‘hates’ Mr Trump for his defiance since the Capitol riot, CNN claimed, and the pair have not spoken for weeks.
The split between Mr Trump and Mr McConnell represents the fracture between the Republican party that could consume it for the next four years.
Polls show that the majority of voters see themselves as supporting Mr Trump rather than the party, creating a massive headache for the leadership. Mr McConnell is said to be respectful of the Senate as an institution and sees Mr Trump’s actions as a threat to that.
He is also thinking of his own legacy and wants to be seen as a defender of the Capitol rather than siding with Mr Trump.
Getting rid of the President and having him banned from running for the presidency is being seen as the best way to detoxify the Republican brand.
A source close to Mr McConnell told Fox News that ‘nobody is pleased by anything’.
Other sources said there was ‘no love lost there’ as Mr Trump lost control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House in just one term – the first president since Herbert Hoover to do so.
Mr McConnell has spoken to Republican donors to assess their thinking about Mr Trump and was told they believed the President had crossed a line, a party strategist said.
If Mr McConnell refuses to whip his party to support Mr Trump – which he did when the President was impeached in 2019 – it could give the green light to other Republicans to vote against their leader.
The Senate is split with 50 votes on each side but there needs to be a two-thirds majority to convict Mr Trump.
‘Nobody is pleased by anything’