The Satanic Snapping Turtle of Kentucky, who gives the Father of Lies a run for his money, is now telling the Media “I was duped by Donald Trump!” And how did Trump dupe our poor little unsuspecting terrapin? Trump’s people claimed that Trump would behave himself and accept the November 3rd Election results. McConnell believed him.
No, I am not making this shit up.
On November 9, a senior Republican explained what was then the Republican Party’s consensus posture toward President Trump’s refusal to accept the election results. The quote, given anonymously to the Washington Post, became instantly notorious: “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change.”
Needless to say, that explanation looks even worse now. McConnell and his allies are trying to launder their reputations. McConnell’s excuse is contained within a deeply reported New York Times narrative account of Trump’s election challenge. Apparently, McConnell was duped by Trump and his wily son-in-law:
The senator was also under a false impression that the president was only blustering, the officials said. Mr. McConnell had had multiple conversations with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and the senator’s top political adviser, Josh Holmes, had spoken with Mr. Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. Both West Wing officials had conveyed the same message: They would pursue all potential avenues but recognized that they might come up short. Mr. Trump would eventually bow to reality and accept defeat.
Jared Kushner and Mark Meadows supposedly said that to McConnell. And McConnell believed them. The insult to one’s intelligence is mind shattering.
I’m not around either man, but just about every anonymous Republican source that blabs to the Media says that both men are drooling idiots. And assholes to boot. Why would anyone outside of Louie Gohmert believe those two?
And I didn’t read the NYT article, so I don’t know if the reporters there decided to buy this swill from the Satanic Snapping Turtle. But given that McConnell has played the Media before (I’m open to impeaching Trump. NOT!), the NYT reporters probably slurped this BS up because it’s access to a senior senate Republican.
But Jonathon Chait is not buying what McConnell is selling:
McConnell was getting a more reassuring story about Trump’s intentions through his back channels. Again, the question is whether he actually believed it. What are we to make of the news that Jared Kushner promised Josh Holmes, a McConnell confidant, Trump didn’t really mean all his scary talk about the stolen election? The trope that Kushner would steer his father-in-law away from his most destructive beliefs has been tried, and found wanting, so many times it’s been reduced to a punch line. If McConnell was fooled, it’s because he wanted to be fooled.
Which he wasn’t because McConnell really, really, really wanted to stay Senate Majority Leader, and he was letting Trump burn down our electoral system because McConnnel wanted Trump to rally the mob for the Jan 5th Senate races. He wanted one more burst of that old time Trump magic to stay in power. Too bad for the Satanic Snapping Turtle that Trump decided to have turtle soup instead.
And after he took away McConnell’s power, Trump decided to have a little insurrection to kill anyone in Congress.
But this ain’t stopping the old Satanic Snapping Turtle from spinning another lie:
Everything in Trump’s history made it obvious he would provoke a crisis if defeated. McConnell chose to cooperate with Trump’s attack on the republic for the same reason he spent the previous four years cooperating with Trump: because it enhanced his own power.
McConnell has always fashioned himself the canniest man in Washington. His desire to broadcast his own savvy has frequently led him to counterproductively blurt out of his own cynicism. (McConnell has famously admitted that his goals under Obama were to deny the president bipartisan cover and make him a one-term president, quotes that Democrats later threw back in his face.) He simply cannot suppress his instinct to let everybody know how shrewdly he plays the game.
McConnell is now casting himself as a dupe because it is the only escape. He has been implicated in a historic crime.
It’s the old standby for criminals who have been caught, especially for those who have prided themselves the Masters of the Universe. Basically, it goes like this: “I’m too stupid to have committed a crime.” And this is what McConnell is peddling.