Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump appear to have finally put aside their grievances after meeting for the first time in years on Thursday.
“We had a very positive meeting. He and I had a chance to talk a little bit and shake hands a few times,” McConnell told reporters afterward. “I can’t think of anything that would tell you it was negative.”
Trump’s meeting with Republicans in Congress on Thursday marked the first time he has returned to Capitol Hill since inciting an insurrection in 2021. Lawmakers spoke glowingly about their candidate after the meeting, and NBC News reported that Republicans held an early celebration of Trump’s 78th birthday.
But Trump and McConnell’s cordiality is notable considering the two men have not spoken since December 2020, when McConnell acknowledged that Joe Biden had won the election. McConnell later blamed Trump for the January 6 riot, calling him “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” Since then, Trump has repeatedly criticized McConnell and made racist attacks on his wife, Elaine Chao.
Much of the Republican Party has already capitulated to Trump, so it’s not surprising that McConnell finally joined the crowd. He endorsed Trump in March, a move that my colleague Steve Benen noted was “inevitable.” And in May, after months of silence about Trump’s hush-money trial in New York, McConnell defended him after a jury convicted the former president of 34 crimes for falsifying business documents.
“This charge should never have been brought in the first place,” McConnell wrote in a post on X. “I expect the conviction will be overturned on appeal.”
McConnell has never been Trump’s biggest fan. But whatever reservations the Republican leader may have about his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, he has long been willing to put them aside in the service of his own agenda — and he appears ready to do it again.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
