Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is no longer going to be the Senate majority leader. He’s furious with Trump. He thinks the president cost the GOP the majority and is pleased with the Democrats’ push to remove President Donald Trump. It’s a big endorsement from the GOP side of the aisle for sure. Unlike the first impeachment push, McConnell doesn’t see this current attempt as a partisan exercise. Apparently, how he will vote is still up in the air, which means as of now, he hasn’t definitively ruled out convicting the president (via Fox News):
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republican colleagues Wednesday that he has "not made a final decision" on how he will vote on impeachment, despite signaling that he supported House Democrats’ move to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
"While the press has been full of speculation, I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate," McConnell told Senate Republicans.
McConnell’s comment comes after sources told Fox News that McConnell is "done" and "furious" with the president, and as the House considered an article of impeachment against Trump, saying he incited "insurrection" ahead of the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
One source told Fox News on Tuesday that McConnell does not see House Democrats’ efforts to impeach Trump as a partisan exercise like the previous impeachment effort in 2019.
Another source told Fox News that McConnell told associates that impeachment will help rid the Republican Party of Trump and his movement.
Now, there have been conflicting reports about whether McConnell was pleased with the effort, but that’s more of a hair-splitting, inside the beltway topic of discussion. What is clear is that McConnell is done with Trump. Yet, we’re circling back to this notion of "impeaching Trump is good for the GOP" argument. I think Mitch is making a huge miscalculation. The GOP is Trump. Trumpism is here to stay within the GOP. It’s a populist movement, but one where around 85 percent of the action items are what conservative Republicans have been fighting and advocating for over the past four decades. The base is energized by President Trump. Is that base transferable should he not run in 2024? That's something to look out for. But siding with the Democrats — of all things — is rife with disaster.