Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell now says he would support former President Donald Trump if Mr. Trump were to win the GOP nomination for the White House in 2024.
Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said supporting the eventual GOP nominee is part of his duties as a party leader.
“I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview with Axios on Thursday. “That will mean that whoever the nominee is has gone out and earned the nomination.”
Mr. McConnell has made similar comments in the past, despite having broken publicly with Mr. Trump on numerous big issues.
The rift between the two men was evident directly after the 2020 election, when Mr. Trump alleged there was widespread fraud, while Mr. McConnell embraced a smooth transition of power to President Biden.
The divide grew irreparable after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with Mr. McConnell suggesting that Mr. Trump was to blame. Mr. Trump followed suit by urging Senate Republicans to dump Mr. McConnell from his leadership post.
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Mr. McConnell says that his support for Trump in 2024, if the former president were to win the Republican nomination, is “not at all inconsistent.”
“I stand by everything I said about January 6,” Mr. McConnell said. “I don’t get to pick the Republican nominee for president. They’re elected by the Republican voters all over the country.”
• Haris Alic can be reached at halic@washingtontimes.com.
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