'50-50' chance Mitch McConnell will vote to impeach Trump, wants to rid the GOP of his influence: Reports
Amid growing bipartisan support for impeaching President Donald Trump, it was reported that there is a pretty decent chance of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell supporting the effort to hold the POTUS accountable for his actions as he looks to defend his legacy in office.
Sources told Axios that there was about a 50% chance of McConnell would vote to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial. They said: "The Senate institutional loyalists are fomenting a counterrevolution" to Trump, a top Republican close to McConnell told the outlet. If this was to happen, it would not only represent "one of the most shocking and damning votes in the history of American politics" by a Republican holding the highest office in Congress, a conviction of impeachment would also pose the real possibility of that Trump would be prohibited from running for president again.
It was also reported by the New York Times that McConnell "has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him." According to Axios, "McConnell sees this fight as his legacy — defending the Senate and the institution against the verbal attack of the president and the literal attack of his followers."
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers are fast getting off the Trump train, especially after the president was seen as inciting his followers to spread violence. House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming — the third-ranking House GOP leader — announced that she will vote to impeach Trump. Cheney said about the mob that attacked the Capitol: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."
Back in December, McConnell was already beginning to reassess the GOP’s position of supporting Trump challenging the outcome of the November 3 presidential election which has pushed the red party to a dead end. On Tuesday, December 15, the 78-year-old Senate Majority Leader warned his GOP colleagues against challenging the Electoral College (EC) votes confirming Joe Biden as the president-elect as he feels such an effort would only split the party. McConnell, who won his seventh term in the chamber last month from Kentucky, pleaded with the caucus to not oppose the Congress when it moves to certify the election of Biden on January 6.
McConnell also acknowledged for the first time that the former vice president will be the next president in his floor remarks. His words also came at a time when several hardline conservative GOP House members, led by Alabama Representative Mo Brooks, were planning to challenge the election outcome on January 6. "Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result," McConnell said, "but our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on January 20. The Electoral College has spoken."
Trump lambasted McConnell in a December tweet. "Mitch, 75,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot)," Trump wrote. "Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!" He warned that he "will never forget" how some Republican lawmakers didn't join in his quest to overturn the November 3 election, which he claims is disputed. "I saved at least 8 Republican Senators, including Mitch, from losing in the last Rigged (for President) Election," Trump tweeted. "Now they (almost all) sit back and watch me fight against a crooked and vicious foe, the Radical Left Democrats. I will NEVER FORGET!"