Former US President Donald Trump slammed Republican Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell for failing to prevent what he has called the theft of the 2020 election.
Trump told New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns on Thursday that he would still be in the White House if Senate Minority Leader McConnell had sided with him and challenged the outcome of the disputed election.
“Had Mitch stuck with many members of the party who knew the election was rigged, I think we wouldn’t be at Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said in an interview at his resort in Florida.
“We would be at the White House having this conversation,” he added.
An excerpt of the book, called “This Will Not Pass,” was obtained by Punchbowl News states.
Trump has frequently attacked McConnell for acknowledging Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the disputed 2020 election.
McConnell, a Republican who was called an “Old Crow” by Trump, in February denounced the Republican National Committee (RNC) that called the events surrounding January 6, 2021 "legitimate political discourse."
Trump is “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” of January 6, McConnell said after the former president’s second impeachment trial.
McConnell recently said in an interview, however, that he would support Trump if he became the GOP nominee in 2024.
“I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party,” McConnell said. “That will mean that whoever the nominee is has gone out and earned the nomination.”
Trump has not been so forgiving, and called McConnell an “Old Crow.”
“Why is it that Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan, and induced others in his Party to do likewise, when he was incapable of getting a great Infrastructure Plan wanting to be put forward by me and the Republican Party?” asked said after McConnell voted for the bipartisan infrastructure plan.
Trump and his allies had raised concerns that widespread fraud marred the election and that it was rigged by the Washington establishment in favor of Biden, who was certified as the winner in Congress on January 6, 2021.
Trump has been casting doubt on the outcome of his loss by insisting it was the result of fraud. He has said that the 2020 presidential election was “the greatest Election Hoax in history.”
McConnell distanced himself from Trump since the former president was accused by the Washington establishment and media of inciting his supporters to invade the Capitol in the wake of his loss in the disputed 2020 presidential election.
McConnell had said that Trump is "morally responsible" for provoking the January 6 storming of the Capitol to overturn the election results.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Biden's victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.
It is claimed by some that the demonstrators were infiltrated and incited by provocateurs from US intelligence agencies, who orchestrated the “false flag operation” in order to get rid of Trump.
Some among the crowd clashed with police, and some made threats to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. Some also inflicted damage on parts of the Capitol building.