McConnell Excoriates Trump for Role in Riot Despite Acquittal

(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell delivered a scorching speech assailing Donald Trump as “practically and morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol after the Kentucky senator voted to acquit the former president on the impeachment charge.

McConnell said the mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 because “they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he had lost an election.”

Echoing the case made by the Democratic House impeachment managers, McConnell said it wasn’t just Trump’s speech but “the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe” that preceded it.

“The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things,” McConnell said in a speech on the Senate floor, just minutes after voting with 42 other Republicans to acquit Trump.

“This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters’ decision or else torch our institutions on the way out,“ McConnell said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters afterward that “it was a very disingenuous speech.” She said “I don’t know if it was for donors or what.”

By putting the blame for the Capitol attack squarely on Trump, McConnell appeared to be trying to close the chapter of the former president’s control over the Republican party.

But with the 57-43 vote falling short of the two-thirds threshold necessary for a conviction, the Senate left open the possibility that Trump can run for office again. And Trump said in a statement after the acquittal that “soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future.”

Not ‘Final Forum’

McConnell pointedly said that former presidents can be subject to criminal and civil litigation. He said Trump “didn’t get away with anything yet -- yet.”

“Impeachment was never meant to be the final forum for American justice,” McConnell said. “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office.”

Seven Republicans joined Democrats in voting to convict Trump: Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

Earlier Saturday, McConnell previewed his acquittal vote in a statement to his Republican colleagues, saying, “While a close call, I am persuaded that impeachments are a tool primarily of removal and we therefore lack jurisdiction.”

In his floor speech after the vote, McConnell said if Trump were still in office he would have “carefully considered” whether the House impeachment managers proved their case.

“The question is moot because former President Trump is not eligible for impeachment,” even though he was president when the House voted, McConnell said.

Democrats had asked McConnell to reconvene the Senate to begin the impeachment trial while Trump was in office, but the Republican leader declined, arguing that there wasn’t enough time before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden.

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