NRSC Chairman Rick Scott presented President Donald J. Trump with the NRSC’s inaugural Champion for Freedom Award.
Courtesy: NRSC
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) participates in a swearing-in ceremony for the 117th Congress with Vice President Mike Pence, as his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, holds the Bible in the Old Senate Chambers at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC, January 3, 2021.
Kevin Dietsch | Pool | Reuters
A day after getting his award, Trump reportedly lashed out at McConnell as the former president was speaking to a group of Republican donors at Mar-a-Lago. Trump claimed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would have overturned the election results if a Democratic candidate stood to gain.
“If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a b— Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen,” Trump told the crowd at the event, which was held by the Republican National Committee. “They would have fought it.”
A source told NBC News that Trump griped that “a real leader” never would have accepted the Electoral College results showing he lost.
Trump also went after McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who resigned as Trump’s Transportation secretary a day after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, where supporters of the then-president rampaged through the halls of Congress, disrupting proceedings that were confirming Biden’s victory.
“I hired his wife,” Trump griped. “Did he ever say thank you?”
“She suffered so greatly,” Trump said sarcastically.
McConnell has blamed Trump for inciting the riot but voted against convicting the former president at his Senate impeachment trial in February.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Monday that its Champion of Freedom award is “presented to conservative leaders who have worked tirelessly to create good jobs, protect the values that make our country great, and stop the Democrats’ socialist agenda.”
“As president, Donald Trump delivered for the American people by appointing three pro-Constitution judges to the Supreme Court, cutting taxes for middle-class families and job creators, and securing the border,” the NRSC said in a statement.
On Sunday, the second ranking Republican in the party’s leadership in the Senate, Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota, did not criticize Trump for his attack on McConnell.
Thune, when asked on “Fox News Sunday” about Trump’s scathing remarks, said he believes “a lot of that rhetoric is part of the style and tone that comes with the former president.”
“But I think he and Mitch McConnell have a common goal,” said Thune.
“And that is getting the majority back in 2022, and hopefully in the end that will be the thing that unites us.”
