Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was recently questioned by a reporter on Tuesday why he was “holding out” on endorsing former President Donald Trump, the “likely nominee,” for president via Mediaite.
It has been noted that during a press conference, a reporter asked McConnell, “Over the weekend, Senator [John] Thune came out and he endorsed Trump. The other lieutenants have endorsed Trump. Why are you holding out in endorsing the likely nominee?”
McConnell replied, “I don’t have any announcement about that today,” before quickly moving on to the next question.
On Monday, unnamed sources “familiar with the situation” told The Hill that Trump’s campaign had been in discussion with McConnell’s team about a potential endorsement.
Trump himself also hinted at a McConnell endorsement this month, claiming that he had heard “McConnell wants to endorse me.”
“That’s what I hear,” said Trump. “I don’t know if he’s going to endorse me, I just heard he wants to endorse me.”
Though he called Trump “morally responsible” for the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021, McConnell—who reluctantly accepted Trump as the Republican Party’s “presumptive nominee” in 2016—said in 2022 that he would have a “duty” to support Trump in 2024 if he were to win the nomination again.
Trump referred to McConnell as a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” and threatened to back one of McConnell’s rivals in the Senate primary after the senator accused Trump of being the cause of the rioting.
Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife and the former secretary of transportation under Trump, has been under fire from the president on multiple occasions, calling her “Coco Chow.”
Chao described the nickname as a “racist taunt,” and in December, McConnell responded to Trump’s claim that illegal immigrants were “poisoning the blood” of the country by saying, “Well it strikes me that didn’t bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao Secretary of Transportation.”
