“I’m Perfectly Comfortable With My . . . What Was It? . . . Moral Red Line?” Mitch McConnell*
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Both the words and idea of a moral red line appear never to have imprinted in the mind of Mitch McConnell. Last month Axios’s Jonathan Swan, a gifted journalist and questioner, attempted to pin down the Senate Minority Leader on whether he has a moral red line and, if so, where that line is drawn. Jonathan Swan Interviews Mitch McConnell.
McConnell protested his ruthlessness as a politician and declared he is perfectly comfortable — has zero moral misgivings — with the entirety of his political career.
Swan juxtaposed a speech McConnell gave on the floor of the senate with the senator’s later answer to whether he would support Trump if the former president were the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee:
During a speech on the senate floor, McConnell called out Trump for his “crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole . . . orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out.” He condemned Trump for his “disgraceful dereliction of duty” on January 6 and held him “practically and morally responsible for” Jan. 6, exclaiming that “the people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
During a subsequent interview on Fox News the Minority Leader was asked if he would support Trump in 2024 if he is the “nominee of the party.”
“Absolutely,” McConnell answered.
McConnell seemed surprised anyone would be surprised that he will “absolutely” support Trump if the latter is the party’s nominee. McConnell said he has “an obligation to support the nominee of my party, and I will.” Nothing the former president did or could do would cause the Minority Leader to withhold his support of Trump because, according to McConnell, he doesn’t “pick the Republican nominee for president. They’re elected by the Republican voters.”
