Less than a month after excoriating former US president Donald Trump in a blistering floor speech, US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday said that he would “absolutely” support Trump again if he secured the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
McConnell told Fox News that there was still “a lot to happen between now” and the next presidential election.
“I’ve got at least four members that I think are planning on running for president, plus governors and others,” McConnell said. “There’s no incumbent. Should be a wide-open race.”
Photo: AFP
When asked if he would support Trump again were he to win the nomination, McConnell said: “The nominee of the party? Absolutely.”
McConnell’s comments precede an annual gathering that this year is expected to showcase Trump’s grip on the Republican Party’s base.
Trump, along with most other leading 2024 presidential prospects, is set to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, which opened yesterday and finishes tomorrow.
Shortly after voting to acquit Trump at his second impeachment trial, McConnell delivered a scalding denunciation of him from the Senate floor, calling him “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol in Washington.
Trump responded by calling McConnell a “dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack.”
While Trump was in office, they secured key Senate victories, such as 2017 tax cuts, and confirmations of three US Supreme Court justices and more than 200 other federal judges.
The relationship between the two soured after Trump said that the presidential election on Nov. 3 last year was “rigged.”
It deteriorated further last month, after Republicans lost Senate control with two Georgia runoff defeats followed by the attack on the Capitol.
On the day of the riot, McConnell railed against “thugs, mobs or threats,” and described the attack as “this failed insurrection.”
Still, McConnell’s comments on Thursday might prove prescient.
US Senator Mitt Romney, a longtime Trump opponent, predicted that the former president would win the nomination if he ran again.
“I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination,” Romney said during an online forum hosted by the New York Times.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
BARRIER BLAME: An aviation expert questioned the location of a solid wall past the end of the runway, saying that it was ‘very bad luck for this particular airplane’ A team of US investigators, including representatives from Boeing, on Tuesday examined the site of a plane crash that killed 179 people in South Korea, while authorities were conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines. All but two of the 181 people aboard the Boeing 737-800 operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air died in Sunday’s crash. Video showed the aircraft, without its landing gear deployed, crash-landed on its belly and overshoot a runaway at Muan International Airport before it slammed into a barrier and burst into flames. The plane was seen having engine trouble.
RSS