What Mitch McConnell is really up to
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell keeps leaking to major media outlets that he wants Donald Trump convicted at his impeachment trial. Yet when a preliminary vote was held yesterday on the constitutionality of the trial, McConnell voted against it. So what’s he really up to?
McConnell can never be trusted to the right thing. But he doesn’t go around looking for excuses to randomly do the wrong thing, either. He’s the kind of calculated villain who doesn’t even think in terms of right or wrong, and he only ever thinks in terms of doing the selfish thing.
McConnell wants Trump off the stage because he thinks it’ll help his Republican Party in 2022, and thus increase his odds of getting his Majority Leader position back. His leaks to the media serve a purpose: he’s trying to send the strongest message possible to Republican Senators that he wants them to convict Trump. That said, as long as McConnell sees that there aren’t 17 votes to convict, he’s not going to stick his own neck out when it comes to his own vote.
So we’re seeing Mitch McConnell continue to try to steer Republican Senators toward convicting Trump, while keeping the proverbial blood off his own shirt. In the end, McConnell will only vote to convict Trump if he has the votes to ensure that Trump really is convicted. McConnell is fairly predictable once you realize that he’s never interested in the right or wrong thing, and that he’s only ever interested in the selfish thing.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report