Mitch ripped Trump on Jan. 6, now backs him
Reality hits and Nikki suspends her campaign for Republican nomination
Sen. Mitch McConnell on Wednesday endorsed former President Donald Trump for election in 2024, setting aside a yearslong feud over Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The outgoing Senate GOP leader, who famously called Trump “morally and practically responsible” for the violent attack on the Capitol, said in a statement that it was time for Republicans to unite behind the party’s presumptive nominee.
“Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for president of the United States,” McConnell said in a statement. “It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support.”
McConnell’s announcement came after Nikki Haley suspended her campaign the day after Trump won a sweeping victory in the Super Tuesday primaries.
McConnell, 82, last week announced he will step down as Republican Senate leader after the fall elections.
“I look forward to the opportunity of switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real difference in improving the lives of the American people,” McConnell said.
He bragged about working with Trump during his first term in the White House, especially in remaking the federal judiciary and installing three conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices.
McConnell did not mention Trump’s effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election, an effort that culminated with the violent Jan. 6 attack by a mob of Trump supporters.
McConnell harshly denounced Trump for engineering what he called an attack on American democracy and the Constitution.
But the iconic leader of the GOP establishment opposed Trump’s impeachment over his incitement of the attack. He effectively blocked Trump’s conviction in the Senate, a decision that opened the door to Trump’s dramatic political comeback.
Trump has viciously derided McConnell for years, branding him an “old crow,” a Republican in name only and worse.
The former president also used anti-Asian nicknames to abuse McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as his own transportation secretary but quit after Jan. 6.
After nearly two decades as GOP Senate leader, McConnell says he will step down when the new Congress begins next January.
Nikki Haley on Wednesday suspended her Republican presidential campaign Wednesday — but refused to endorse former President Donald Trump for now.
After being crushed from coast to coast on Super Tuesday, the former UN ambassador urged Trump to work to earn the support of her and the coalition of mostly moderate and suburban Republicans who backed her campaign,
“It’s now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those who did not support him,” Haley said. “This is now his time for choosing.”
Haley spoke the morning after Trump rolled to an impressive victory on Super Tuesday, winning 14 out of 15 states including giant California and Texas and running up the score with about 80% of the vote in many primary states.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Haley said. “Although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.”
Haley doubled down on her unshakable support for a muscular foreign policy and aid to Ukraine, which many fellow Republicans want to abandon in the face of a Russian invasion.
She leaves the race with wins in tiny, deep-blue Vermont and Washington, D.C. along with respectable showings of more than 40% in independent-minded New Hampshire and about the same in her home state of South Carolina.
Haley quoted former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, another trailblazing female politician: “Never just follow the crowd.”
Haley threw in the towel after spending the last several weeks ramping up her once-tepid criticism of Trump.
She has slammed the twice-impeached, four times-indicted ex-president as unelectable and a danger to democracy, barbs that spurred Trump to angrily deride her as a Republican in name only and worse.
Haley refused to commit to backing Trump in the general election even though she joined other GOP candidates in signing a pledge to endorse the eventual party nominee.
In what amounted to a concession speech Wednesday, Haley softened those attacks significantly, suggesting she may be laying the groundwork to endorse Trump at some point.
“I wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president,” she said. “Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us.”
Haley was the first major candidate to challenge Trump after he announced his run for a third straight Republican nomination.