According to a new book, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attempted to block former President Donald Trump from attending President Joe Biden’s inauguration in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riots.
According to “Betrayal” by ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl, McConnell “felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power,” Politico reported.
When Trump discovered McConnell’s intention, he instead announced he would not be attending the inauguration.
McConnell reportedly went as far as testing the waters on having the four leaders in Congress draft a letter to Trump telling him he had been uninvited. That idea was shot down by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who argued, according to the new book, that having Trump attend “would be an important message of unity.”
McConnell’s push to ensure Trump did not attend Biden's inaugural was shared by one of his advisors with Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as by McCarthy who informed the White House, the book claims. The revelation led to Trump’s last tweet before he was banned from Twitter announcing he would not attend the event.
The book, which will be released on Tuesday, is the latest allegation that the relationship between Trump and McConnell is not what it once was.
Most recently, Trump on Saturday chastised McConnell as an “old crow” for voting with the Democrats on Biden’s 1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
“Mitch McConnell has stated that he will not go to the signing of the ‘Non-Infrastructure’ Bill (only 11% for real Infrastructure) or, as it is sometimes called, the Elect Democrats in 2022/24 Act,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump added: “Based on the fact that the Old Crow convinced many Republican Senators to vote for the Bill, greatly jeopardizing their chance of winning re-election, and that he led the way, he should go to the signing and put up with the scorn from Great Republican Patriots that are already lambasting him.”