Former President Donald Trump went after GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday night for being disloyal to Republican voters.
In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Republican front-runner for the 2024 presidential nomination called McConnell a “bad guy” who sought to undermine GOP voters with support for impeachment.
“The Senate was very good for me, other than, you know, Mitch McConnell,” Trump said. “Too bad I endorsed him.”
Months later, “he really wanted to impeach me,” the former president said. “He’s a bad guy.”
Trump skipped the Fox-moderated Republican primary debate in Wisconsin for a 45-minute sit-down interview with Carlson. The interview published on X, formerly known as Twitter, racked up some 75 million views just an hour after the tape was posted.
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“The level of loyalty is different in politics than it is in normal life,” Trump said. “Mitch McConnell, in my opinion, was trying to get senators to impeach me, especially for the second one.”
During the first impeachment saga, Trump faulted the Senate Republican leader for acting too “slow.” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only member of the upper chamber to support Democrats’ first impeachment crusade. Seven Republican senators, including Romney, supported Trump’s second impeachment.
McConnell, 81, survived a challenge to his perch in Senate leadership last fall after his efforts to sabotage Republican candidates in the 2022 midterms. The GOP Senate leader stripped resources from competitive races in key swing states to maintain a minority chamber he could control instead of a Trump-friendly majority he couldn’t.
In March, the Kentucky lawmaker condemned Carlson’s publication of the Jan. 6 tapes, which undermined far-left narratives branding the 2021 Capitol riot as a “deadly insurrection.” Months later, the Republican Senate leader has refused to condemn the Democrats’ weaponization of law enforcement.
[READ: Republicans Deserve A Senate Leader Willing To Defend Their Interests Over Democrats’]