{"id":2999,"date":"2024-10-18T10:18:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/mcconnell-privately-called-trump-a-despicable-human-and-unfit-for-office-new-book-says\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T10:18:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T10:18:08","slug":"mcconnell-privately-called-trump-a-despicable-human-and-unfit-for-office-new-book-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/mcconnell-privately-called-trump-a-despicable-human-and-unfit-for-office-new-book-says\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell privately called Trump a ‘despicable human’ and unfit for office, new book says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Frank Thorp V<\/a><\/span>, Scott Wong<\/a><\/span> and Jesse Rodriguez<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump<\/a> for president this year. But in a new book, the powerful Kentucky Republican is quoted after the 2020 election disparaging Trump as a \u201cdespicable human being,\u201d \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201cill-tempered.”<\/p>\n

Republicans were counting down the days until he left office, McConnell said at the time. He also called the \u201cnarcissistic\u201d Trump unfit for office after he incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and the Senate leader sobbed to his staff that day after their lives were put in danger, according to a copy of the book obtained by NBC News.<\/p>\n

Those quotes and scenes are depicted in \u201cThe Price of Power,\u201d a new book out this month by veteran journalist Michael Tackett, deputy bureau chief of The Associated Press. His reporting is based on almost three decades of private oral histories McConnell shared with Tackett, as well as more than 50 hours of interviews and thousands of McConnell\u2019s personal and official records.<\/p>\n

McConnell did not deny his statements about Trump as quoted in the book, when asked about it Thursday. \u201cWhatever I may have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham, and others have said about him,\u201d McConnell said in a statement, \u201cbut we are all on the same team now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the book, McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader in history, gives his unfiltered observations about presidents, House speakers, Cabinet officials, fellow senators and tech leaders. But his most scathing criticism was reserved for Trump.<\/p>\n

Some of these remarks were reported<\/a> earlier Thursday by the AP.<\/p>\n

In late December 2020, a month after Joe Biden defeated Trump in the presidential election, McConnell skewered Trump for holding up billions of dollars in Covid relief funds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis despicable human being is sitting on this package of relief that the American people desperately need,\u201d McConnell told his oral historian.<\/p>\n

McConnell was also worried that Trump\u2019s actions after losing the election \u2014 questioning Georgia\u2019s election system and feuding with state officials there<\/a> \u2014 could cost Republicans two Senate seats in the Peach State that same month. Republicans did end up losing both seats \u2014 and the Senate majority.<\/p>\n

Trump is \u201cstupid as well as being ill-tempered and can\u2019t even figure out where his own best interests lie,\u201d McConnell said at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Then-President<\/picture>
Then-President Donald Trump speaks with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the Oval Office at the White House on July 20, 2020.<\/span>Jim Watson \/ AFP via Getty Images file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The GOP leader also said the American people showed \u201cgood judgment\u201d in firing Trump in 2020, given his \u201cerratic\u201d behavior making false claims of election fraud and delaying the Covid package.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m pretty safe in saying it\u2019s not just the Democrats who are counting the days until he leaves on January 20,\u201d McConnell said, \u201cbut the Republicans as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

An institutionalist who had served for decades in the Senate, McConnell was sickened by what happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The insurrectionists were \u201cnarcissistic, just like Donald Trump, sitting in the vice president\u2019s chair taking pictures of themselves,” Tackett’s book quotes him saying. The events were \u201cfurther evidence of Donald Trump\u2019s complete unfitness for office.”<\/p>\n

After speaking on the Senate floor after the attack, McConnell addressed his staff, some of whom rode out the attack by barricading themselves in the Capitol, Tackett wrote. McConnell, a former Senate staffer himself, told his staffers how brave they were and that he appreciated them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMcConnell, a man often characterized as almost soulless and possessing no emotion, started to sob softly, along with many on his staff,\u201d Tackett wrote. \u201c\u2018You are my staff, and you are my responsibility,\u2019 McConnell told them. \u2018You are my family, and I hate the fact that you had to go through this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

A month later, McConnell voted to acquit Trump in his Jan. 6 impeachment trial, though he called<\/a> him “practically and morally responsible” for the attack.<\/p>\n

In Tackett\u2019s book, McConnell said he was certain that Trump\u2019s actions amounted to an \u201cimpeachable offense\u201d but he wrestled with the question of whether a former president could be impeached. Ultimately, McConnell voted to acquit Trump.<\/p>\n

McConnell had also been furious at Trump over his racist attacks on McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary. The GOP leader said that he could take a punch but that his wife should be off-limits. \u201cI can\u2019t think of anybody I\u2019d rather be criticized by than this sleazeball,\u201d McConnell told Tackett. \u201cSo every time he takes a shot at me, I think it\u2019s good for my reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump and McConnell, who is stepping down as the Senate Republican leader this year, have publicly feuded for years. But McConnell endorsed Trump for president earlier this year, saying he always planned to endorse the 2024 GOP nominee. The leader even appeared with Trump<\/a> during his meeting with Senate Republicans in June just off Capitol Hill. <\/p>\n

But less than three weeks before the election, the timing of McConnell\u2019s damning remarks about Trump can\u2019t be helpful to the nominee, who’s locked in a neck-and-neck battle with Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n

“The Price of Power,” published by Simon & Schuster, will be out Oct. 29, one week before Election Day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"1\"<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n

Frank Thorp V<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Frank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"1\"<\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n

Scott Wong<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oct. 17, 2024, 6:59 PM UTC By Frank Thorp V , Scott Wong and Jesse Rodriguez WASHINGTON \u2014 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has endorsed Donald Trump for president this year. But in a new book, the powerful Kentucky Republican is quoted after the 2020 election disparaging Trump as a \u201cdespicable human being,\u201d \u201cstupid\u201d and<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump-election-news"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2024-10\/241017-mitch-mcconnell-ew-147p-ffedc7.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nine9ja.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}