Tara Setmayer, a former Republican strategist, expressed her astonishment at reports suggesting that allies of Donald Trump are urging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to endorse the former president.
Despite their strained relationship following the January 6 Capitol attack, with McConnell openly criticizing Trump and the latter retaliating by attacking McConnell and hinting at his removal in a potential second Trump term, there seems to be an expectation that McConnell might eventually support Trump, told The New York Times.
“I have to go back to the Mitch McConnell thing for a second,” Setmayer told MSNBC host Michael Steele, himself a former Republican Party chair. “The fact … that Mitch McConnell would even be considering endorsing Donald Trump after everything that Trump has done to him as well, I mean, calling his wife all kinds of ethnic slurs, calling him a piece of crap, according to Maggie Haberman’s book, making fun of him and his age. saying all of these disparaging things about him.”
Setmayer emphasized the deep-seated animosity McConnell harbors towards Trump, viewing him as a non-serious figure. Yet, the possibility of McConnell’s endorsement is seen as a pivotal moment that could pave the way for other Senate members and donors to rally behind Trump, overlooking his controversial actions and behavior.
This scenario, as outlined by Setmayer, highlights the complex and often contradictory dynamics within the Republican Party, where political expediency can sometimes lead to unexpected alliances and endorsements, even among those with significant personal and ideological differences.
“I mean, the day McConnell endorses Trump, you might as well write the obituary for the Republican Party because it’s dead and buried from any image and likeness in which you and I, the party we joined, or the party Reagan was the leader, or the party that Bill Buckley said we’re supposed to be as conservatives, that party is dead and gone,” continued Setmayer. “Because my god, could you be any more of a coward, Mitch McConnell? You’re in a position to actually say no, we cannot allow someone like this to be the President of the United States again. Cut because of political expediency, he’s willing to do it.”
“It’s really quite pathetic,” she added.
