Trump suggested he should've endorsed a Democrat over McConnell in Kentucky in 2020: book
- Former President Donald Trump says in a new book that he "might have" endorsed a Democrat in 2020.
- Trump was referring to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell's reelection bid in Kentucky.
Former President Donald Trump grew so frustrated with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for not backing up his election lies that he suggested he might have supported the GOP senate leader's Democratic opponent, according to Jonathan Karl's forthcoming book.
Karl, the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, sat down with Trump in March 2021 to interview him for the book.
"Trump absurdly claimed that the only reason McConnell had won reelection in solidly Republican Kentucky in 2020 was because he had endorsed him," Karl writes. "'In retrospect,' Trump told me about McConnell's reelection race, 'I might have endorsed the Democrat.'"
That Democrat, former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, was mentioned by Trump several times in speeches he gave while in office, according to the factba.se database, which contains all of the former president's tweets and an extensive record of his public statements.
Trump called her an "extreme liberal" and part of the "radical Democrat mob" in speeches ahead of the 2018 midterms, back when McGrath was running for a Republican-held House seat.
Karl describes how Trump was "consumed with bitterness and resentment aimed almost entirely at fellow Republicans" during their interview, particularly with Senate Leader McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.