McConnell racing away from Trump as impeachment vote nears

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving abruptly away from President Donald Trump, telling people that he thinks Trump perpetrated impeachable offenses.

The Kentucky Republican also sees House Democrats' drive to impeach Trump as an opportune moment to distance the GOP from the tumultuous, divisive outgoing president.

The views of McConnell, who will be Washington's most powerful Republican once Democrat Joe Biden is inaugurated next week, were described by a GOP strategist on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The New York Times first reported McConnell's view on Tuesday.

McConnell's thinking emerged as the Democratic- led House moved toward certain approval of an impeachment article accusing Trump of inciting insurrection, an unprecedented second impeachment of his clamorous presidency. Trump exhorted a throng of his followers to march on the Capitol last Wednesday, where they disrupted Congress' formal certification of Biden's win in a riot that resulted in five deaths.

The Republican strategist said McConnell hasn't said if he'd vote to convict Trump when the Senate holds an impeachment trial. Nonetheless, McConnell's thinking — and the certainty that modest but significant numbers of House Republicans were ready to vote to impeach Trump — underscored how the GOP's long reflexive support and condoning of his actions was eroding.

Last weekend, McConnell spoke to major Republican donors to assess their thinking about Trump and was told that they believed Trump had clearly crossed a line, the strategist said.