Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) confirmed on Wednesday he would be attending a meeting on Thursday with former President Donald Trump.
McConnell told reporters he would be at a meeting with Trump and other Senate Republicans hosted at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), signifying the first time he has seen the former president in roughly four years, according to Fox News.
When asked by a reporter if McConnell planned to “confront any of the bad blood” between him and Trump, or the issues regarding the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, McConnell stated he had promised to support the Republican Party’s nominee, “regardless of who it was.”
File/President Donald Trump, accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chair of the GOP Conference, arrives to speak on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“You know, I said three years ago, right after the Capitol was attacked, I would support our nominee, regardless of who it was, including him,” McConnell explained. “I’ve said earlier this year, I support him. He’s been, earned the nomination by the voters all across the country. And, of course, I’ll be at the meeting tomorrow.”
.@LeaderMcConnell on attending meeting with former President Trump tomorrow: "I said three years ago, right after the Capitol was attacked, that I would support our nominee, regardless of who it was, including him...And of course, I will be at the meeting tomorrow." pic.twitter.com/5iqQt1lJGN
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 12, 2024
McConnell who has been no fan-favorite of Trump’s, recently criticized the former president’s guilty verdict from a Manhattan jury, stating that it would be “overturned on appeal.”
After the November 2020 presidential election, on December 15, McConnell recognized President Joe Biden as having won the election. McConnell also reportedly encouraged Republican Senators to refrain from objecting to electoral votes.
While giving a speech on the Senate floor in February 2021, after the January 6 riot at the Capitol, McConnell stated that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”
File/President Donald Trump invites Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., right, onstage at a rally at Alumni Coliseum in Richmond, Ky., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
The former president has also spoken out against McConnell on several occasions since leaving office. In a post on Truth Social from August 2022, Trump stated that McConnell was “a pawn for the Democrats” and that the GOP needed a “new Republican Leader in the Senate.”
Trump has also called McConnell a “disgrace” for enabling Democrat’s spending.
Despite this, McConnell endorsed Trump in March 2024, stating that “it is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be” the party’s “nominee for President of the United States.”
