Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took aim at former President Donald Trump when asked about his response to the House Jan. 6 panel’s criminal referral of the previous president to the Justice Department on Monday.
“The complete nation knows who’s liable for that day. Beyond that, I don’t have any immediate observations,” McConnell told reporters when asked in regards to the House select committee’s findings.
The committee, led by Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), beneficial to the DOJ that Trump, 76, be charged with inciting or assisting an revolt, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to make false statements to investigators, and conspiracy to defraud the US government.
The panel had said it uncovered evidence Trump pushed claims he knew were false in regards to the 2020 presidential election in an effort to vary the election’s final result.
McConnell had previously laid blame on Trump for Jan. 6 on the Senate floor in February 2021, after the previous president was acquitted of inciting an revolt at his impeachment trial.
“There is no such thing as a query that President Trump is practically and morally liable for upsetting the events of that day,” McConnell, who voted to acquit Trump because he was not in office, said.
Trump has attacked McConnell and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, on quite a few occasions since leaving the White House, referring to McConnell as a “disaster” and a “broken down hack” and to his wife as “China-loving.”
Some Senate Republicans said on Monday that they didn’t agree with McConnell’s assessment.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told CNN on Monday, “I haven’t seen a poll like that,” when asked in regards to the Senate GOP leader’s comments.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who’s a member of McConnell’s leadership team, said the House select committee’s investigation was not credible, but added, “I don’t dispute that folks saw it with their very own eyes,” when asked about McConnell’s comment.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) responded, “I don’t know who he said was responsible but to me, the folks that were liable for January 6 were the folks that illegally got here into the constructing, folks that stormed over barriers and broke through windows and doors and illegally trespassed in america Capitol.”
The previous president brushed off the panel’s referral to the DOJ on Monday, writing in a press release posted on his Truth Social account: “These folks don’t get it that after they come after me, individuals who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to forestall violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home.”
