New book details McConnell's attempts to avoid Trump's anger in the immediate aftermath of 2020 election
A new book gives a window into former President Donald Trump's mindset in the weeks after the 2020 election, showing the lengths he was willing to go to reverse the election's results, CNN reports.
An excerpt from the book details how Trump wanted to rope Mitch McConnell into his plan. But McConnell wanted to shift focus away from the election and instead look towards the January 2021 runoffs for the races for two Senate seats in Georgia. McConnell maintained a strategic silence in regards to Trump's election claims in an attempt to prevent him from sabotaging the GOP's chances ahead of the runoffs.
"Trump was certain he could subvert the election outcome, telling McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, and other top Republicans that he had personally been on the phone with officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan -- and they told him they would move to keep him in power, despite the results showing Biden had won their states," CNN reports.
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According to the book, titled, "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," McConnell was worried that if he angered Trump, the former President would derail the Georgia runoff campaigns of then-GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. In a December phone call, Trump told McConnell and GOP senators that Georgia voters would not tolerate Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's assurance that the 2020 election was legitimate. McConnell reportedly stayed quiet in the call.
The book contends that McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, who served as Trump's transportation secretary until she resigned in the wake of the Capitol riot, were at a loss with how to deal with Trump after the elections. "Every day the leader and I wake up saying, 'How do we manage the president?'" Chao told a friend in December 2020, according to the book.
Read the full report over at CNN.