After the attack on January 6 – in which hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol and disrupted the certification of Congress on the 2020 elections, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was then tasked with reassembling the chamber to continue the formalities. .
As detailed in journalist Michael Tackett’s biography of McConnell, the Republican leader had known before January 6, 2021, that some conservative lawmakers planned to deny the certification of two critical states – Pennsylvania and Arizona – due to unfounded claims of voter fraud. .
Two Republican senators helped lead the efforts when Congress first convened on January 6: Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley. However, as Tackett writes in his book, Power PriceMcConnell was hopeful after returning to the Capitol that the riots would “dissuade senators” from “passing on pointless arguments” for President Joe Biden’s victory.
“His wish was half granted,” Tackett wrote in a copy of the biography he obtained Newsweek. Cruz canceled plans to protest the election vote after the crowd stopped. McConnell told Tackett that Cruz even went out of his way to ask Republican leaders for advice, which came as a bit of a surprise.
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“Believe it or not, Ted Cruz, who has built a career where I have no problems, called me last night to ask for advice on how to handle everything,” McConnell told Tackett later. interview. “It was almost an out-of-body experience.”
Congress continues to certify the results of the election, officially marking Biden’s victory over Trump.
Details of McConnell and Cruz’s conversation come days before the 2024 election. The Texas senator’s re-election bid is being challenged by Democratic Congressman Colin Allred, a former NFL player who represents the state’s 32nd Congressional District. Senate seats are critical in determining which party has control of the upper chamber of Congress next year.
Polls show that the gap between Cruz and Allred has closed when November 5 is closer. Democrats also played on Cruz’s loyalty to Trump and his actions on Jan. 6 in an attack on Republican lawmakers. Cruz has been endorsed by the former president and has failed to say whether he believes Trump will lose the 2020 election.
Newsweek The Cruz campaign was reached via email on Monday for additional comment. An email was also sent to McConnell’s office.
Another part of Tackett’s book details the relationship between Rocky McConnell and Cruz. During a Senate hearing in July 2015, a Texas lawmaker accused McConnell of being a “liar” on the floor of the chamber, a moment that Tackett wrote was “a serious breach of decency in the party, but also the kind of action that gets Cruz the attention he wants. It will.”
In the days leading up to January 6, McConnell also learned of Cruz and Hawley’s plan to block the certification of the election results, which McConnell considered “a publicity stunt by two people with presidential ambitions rather than a serious obstacle to the process,” Tackett said. write.
McConnell’s upcoming biography also reveals the Republican leader’s thoughts on Trump. While McConnell and Trump have clashed in the past — including over McConnell’s refusal to block his 2020 election certification — Kentucky lawmakers have endorsed the former president before November.
But in previous years, especially after the 2020 election, McConnell called Trump “erratic,” and told Tackett that he believed Trump’s “MAGA movement was completely wrong.”
“I think Trump was the biggest factor in changing the Republican Party from what Ronald Reagan saw and he will never know now,” McConnell said, according to Tackett’s book.
When approached by CNN about his comments about the former president, McConnell said, “Anything I’ve said about President Trump doesn’t compare to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him, but we’re all on the same team now. .”
Tackett’s biography will be released to the public on October 29.
