WATCH: Mitch McConnell Confronted About His Support for Trump in Two Tense Sunday Morning Interviews
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) faced two hard lines of questioning Sunday from two different networks over his continued support for former President Donald Trump.
Margaret Brennan with Face The Nation on CBS started off her interview with McConnell by exclaiming, “Since the past few months have passed and our last conversation, you’ve endorsed him for re-election!”
“You need to get better research,” McConnell shot back. “I was asked that question three years ago: If he were the nominee, would I support him? And I said yes.”
BRENNAN: And you said you would support whoever the nominee was.
MCCONNELL: Because the voters of my party across the country have made a decision. As the Republican leader of the Senate, obviously I’m going to support the nominee of our party.
BRENNAN: But you have taken stands on issues you feel are of strong national security interests, and morally imperative. That was your argument on Ukraine. And that you were bucking, in some ways, a populist opinion. So, on this one, I’m just wondering how you explain that. When you say it was good enough for a number of Republicans that he be the nominee. Because that is the populist opinion. It’s not taking the issue that he doesn’t live up to the role.
MCCONNELL: The issue is, what kind of influence, even if I’ve chose to get involved in a presidential election, what kind of influence would I have had?
BRENNAN: You’re one of the most powerful Republicans!
MCCONNELL: I’m the leader of the senate. What we do here is try to make law. I like to be in the majority.
BRENNAN: Your world view seems more aligned with Joe Biden when it comes to American leadership in these global conflicts than with Donald Trump. He’s spoken against Volodymyr Zelensky, who has not endorsed the package that you just worked so hard to get over the finish line.
MCCONNELL: Look…I got plenty of differences with the current administration. Whether I will have differences with the next administration remains to be seen. I know what I think, and it doesn’t make any difference what the outcome of the next presidential election is, I’m going to be focusing on this with the remainder of my time in the Senate.
And in a separate interview, Kristen Welker, on NBC’s Meet The Press, focused on Trump’s presidential immunity claim and whether McConnell regretted voting not to impeach Trump.
“Let’s take a look at what’s going on at the Supreme Court this week,” Welker said. “In 2021 you voted to acquit Donald Trump in his second impeachment, saying on the Senate floor, quote, ‘We have a criminal justice system in this country, we have civil litigation, and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.’ As we sit here, Donald Trump’s attorneys are arguing before the Supreme Court that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for actions they take while in office. Do you agree with that argument?”
MCCONNELL: We’re going to find out, aren’t we? I mean the Supreme Court is going to deal with that direct issue that I was referring to on Feb. 13, 2021, and I think we’ll find out sometime soon.
WELKER: What do you think, Leader McConnell? Do you think that presidents should be immune from criminal prosecution while they’re in offie?
MCCONNELL: Obviously I don’t think that, but it’s not up to me to make that decision. The president clearly needs some kind of immunity or he’d be in court all the time. So, we’ll see how the Supreme Court deals with it.
WELKER: Just to be clear, you said former presidents are not immune from being held accountable. Do you stand by those comments?
MCCONNELL: That was my view, but I don’t make those decisions.
WELKER: but do you stand by those comments?
MCCONNELL: Yeah, that’s my view. But my view is my view. The court is going to decide this.
WELKER: But just to be clear, you stand by those comments: former presidents are not immune from being held accountable.
MCCONNELL: I do, but many times I have to say, I’m not on the Supreme Court. I don’t get to make the final decision on that.
WELKER: Do you ever regret your decision to acquit President Trump in his second impeachment trial?
MCCONNELL: Look, he was not president at that point anymore. There was a big debate over whether you could even impeach somebody, remove them from office that they don’t hold. I stick with what I said then, I addressed this issue on Jan 6 and on Feb. 13. I stand by everything I said.
Watch the clips above via CBS News and NBC News.
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