McConnell: Not ‘a front page headline’ that I’d back GOP nominee in 2024

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Thursday defended his stance of supporting former President Trump as the Republican nominee in 2024 should Trump run again, saying he has “an obligation to support the nominee of my party.”

“Well, as the Republican leader of the Senate, it should not be a front page headline that I will support the Republican nominee for president,” McConnell said during an Axios NewsShapers interview when pressed about his position on backing Trump.

McConnell was asked by Axios’s Jonathan Swan to address statements the GOP leader made last year after the second impeachment trial against Trump. At the time, McConnell criticized Trump’s actions leading up to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, though later said he’d still back Trump if he won the party’s nomination again in 2024.

“I think I have an obligation to support the nominee of my party,” McConnell said Thursday when pressed on his previous comments. “That will mean that whoever the nominee is has gone out and earned the nomination.”

Swan pushed McConnell again, saying he seemed “to hold two concurrent, conflicted positions.”

“Not at all inconsistent. Not at all inconsistent. I stand by everything I said on [both occasions],” the Senate GOP leader said.

“I don’t get to pick the Republican nominee for president. They’re elected by the Republican voters all over the country,” he added.

Following the second impeachment trial, McConnell — who voted to acquit the then-president — rebuked Trump and said that he was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. 

“The people that stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” McConnell said.

However, the Kentucky Republican told Fox News’s Bret Baier weeks later that he would “absolutely” support Trump if he won the Republican presidential primary in 2024. 

During the interview with Baier, McConnell avoided answering questions regarding his rebuke of Trump on the Senate floor.