McConnell Questions Trump’s Fitness for the Presidency – Again

For the second week in a row, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell needed to begin out his Tuesday press look by dressing down his get together’s former president and de facto front-runner for the 2024 nomination.

“First, let me simply say that anybody searching for the presidency who thinks that the Constitution ought to one way or the other be suspended or not adopted appears to me would have a really laborious time being sworn in because the president of the U.S.,” McConnell informed reporters on the Capitol on Tuesday, clearly exasperated at having to formally condemn Trump’s remarks when he actually needed to speak in regards to the GOP agenda on the Hill.

This week, it was a proactive response to anticipated questions on Trump’s endorsement of throwing out the Constitution – the doc he swore to uphold when he was sworn in as president in 2017 – due to what Trump mentioned was Twitter’s unfair therapy of him through the 2020 election.

Last Tuesday, in his weekly presser after the Senate get together luncheons on the second ground of the Capitol, it was antisemistim and white nationalism that McConnell was compelled to deal with upfront.

Then, the post-luncheon press availability got here after disclosures Trump dined with Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, and the rapper Kanye “Ye” West, whose antisemitic rants have value him enterprise sponsorships.

“First, let me simply say that there is no such thing as a room within the Republican Party for antisemitism or white supremacy,” McConnell mentioned final week.

And each weeks, McConnell delivered what he believed to be the punishment for Trump’s conduct.

“Anyone assembly with individuals advocating that standpoint, in my judgment, are extremely unlikely to ever be elected president of the United States,” McConnell mentioned final week, declining to say whether or not he would vote for or in opposition to Trump if he have been the nominee.

Tuesday this week, it was deja vu another time, with McConnell noting the intrinsic relationship between the Constitution and the presidential oath of workplace.

“What I’m saying is it might be fairly laborious to be sworn in to the presidency if you happen to’re not keen to uphold the Constitution,” McConnell mentioned when pressed additional on the matter. “That’s what I mentioned, and I’ve simply mentioned it once more.”

And once more, McConnell wouldn’t give a solution on whether or not or not he would help Trump in 2024.

The ghosts of Trump’s presidency and kicking-and-screaming departure from the White House proceed to canine McConnell, who has made no secret of his annoyance over his get together’s incapacity to retake management of the Senate within the midterm elections. “Candidate high quality,” McConnell mentioned of his get together’s nominees, was a difficulty.

Earlier Tuesday, McConnell and his House counterpart, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, have been clearly and dramatically snubbed by the household of the late U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who was posthumously honored with the Congressional Gold Medal for his heroism through the Capitol revolt Jan, 6, 2021.

As Sicknick’s household accepted the award, they shook palms with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat. They then very intentionally ignored the outstretched palms of McConnell and McCarthy because the GOP sought to congratulate them, footage of the occasion exhibits.

“They’re simply two-faced,” Gladys Sicknick, Brian’s mom, informed CNN afterward. “I’m simply uninterested in them standing there and saying how fantastic the Capitol Police is, after which they flip round and … go right down to Mar-a-Lago and kiss his ring.

“It simply hurts,” she added.

Some Republicans have downplayed the occasions of Jan. 6, calling the insurrectionists “patriots.” McCarthy, who initially blamed Trump for the occasions that day, has since cozied as much as Trump on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago property.