Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told Republican colleagues in a letter that he will vote to acquit former President Donald Trump, Politico reported Saturday morning.
According to the report, McConnell “told GOP colleagues in a letter that he will vote to acquit Donald Trump in the former president’s impeachment trial, according to sources familiar with the communication.”
McConnell refused to reveal whether he intended to convict or acquit Trump in the lead up to the impeachment trial, telling reporters that he intended to hear both sides of the arguments.
“I think that’s what we ought to do. That’s what I said before it started. That’s still my view,” McConnell said at the time.
The minority leader previously told colleagues that their vote would ultimately be one of “conscience” and made waves after a January 19 floor speech where he said that the January 6 mob was “fed lies” and “provoked by the president and other powerful people.”
“And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like,” he said.
Democrats and members of the establishment media had hoped that McConnell would steer Republicans to convict the former president, but a conviction widely remains unlikely given that 44 GOP senators, including McConnell, questioned the constitutionality of proceeding with the trial this week.
The news also follows a Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey taken this month, which showed 53 percent of Kentuckians disapproving of McConnell’s job performance and 41 percent approving.
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