Mitch McConnell privately says he wants Trump gone as senior Republicans quietly lobby for impeachment: Report
A number of "prominent Republicans" have allegedly lobbied Mitch McConnell to impeach former President Donald Trump. “Dozens of influential Republicans around Washington” have been pushing the Senate Minority Leader and other Congressional Republicans to convict Trump after the Capitol Hill riots, according to a report by CNN.
The report claims McConnell allegedly agrees with impeachment. “Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone,” a Republican member of Congress allegedly told CNN. “It is in his political interest to have him gone. It is in the GOP's interest to have him gone. The question is, do we get there?”
The Senate would need a two-thirds majority in order to convict Trump, meaning at least 17 Republicans would need to vote in favor of the same. GOP sources allegedly told CNN a conviction is quite possible. “There were 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment. There were probably over 150 who supported it,” said former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent.
According to CNN, a number of Republicans want Trump to be convicted because they view him as a negative impact to the future of the GOP. “Trump created a cult of personality that is hard to dismantle,” a former Republican official allegedly told CNN. “Conviction could do that.”
A memo that is reportedly being circulated among Republicans claims “it is difficult to find a more anti-Conservative outburst by a US president than Donald Trump in the last two months.” It alleges that Trump “urged supporters from across the nation to come to Washington, DC, to disrupt” Congress on January 6 and encouraged the crowd, which was “widely understood to include people who were planning to fight physically, and who were prepared to die in response to his false claims of a stolen election.”
The memo reportedly also states that Trump “tweeted and made other statements against the Vice President as the Secret Service was being forced to rush Mike Pence out of the Senate chamber and into a protective bunker.”
That said, there is a sizeable pro-Trump faction within Congress that is still fervently supporting the 45th US president. “No, no, no,” Sen. Ron Johnson told CNN when asked if he supports the impeachment. He called the potential vote a “dangerous precedent” and added, “I don’t even think we should be having a trial.”
“If you’re wanting to erase Donald Trump from the party, you’re going to get erased,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told Fox News. “This idea of moving forward without Donald Trump in the Republican Party is a disaster for the Republican Party.” GOP sources told CNN that McConnell's decision will likely sway many other Republicans to follow suit.
“The mob was fed lies,” McConnell said, attacking Trump. “They were provoked by the President and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like. But we pressed on.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is slated to send impeachment articles to the Senate. The trial, however, is scheduled for February 8, per latest reports.