Mitch McConnell ‘would absolutely’ support Trump as 2024 GOP nominee

US Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who recently blamed Donald Trump on the Senate floor for a January 6 mob attack against the Capitol, says he would “absolutely” support the former US president if he won the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

McConnell said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that there was still “a lot to happen between now” and the next presidential election.

“I’ve got at least four members that I think are planning on running for president, plus governors and others,” the Kentucky Republican said. “There’s no incumbent. Should be a wide open race.”

However, when asked if he would back Trump again if the latter secured the GOP nomination, McConnell responded, “The nominee of the party? Absolutely.”

The Senate minority leader’s comments came just weeks after he censured Trump on the Senate floor for instigating the deadly attack on US Capitol on January 6 and called the former president’s actions before the attack “a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.”

“Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said at the time, suggesting that the former president could be subject to criminal prosecution.

Trump fired back at McConnell in a lengthy statement and called him “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”

Capitol Hill riots expose US ‘democracy for the sham that it is’: Scholar

The recent riots at Capitol Hill by Trump’s supporters have exposed American “democracy for the sham that it is,” American political analyst Dennis Etler has said.

Recently, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, a longtime Trump opponent, predicted that Trump would win the nomination if he ran again.

“I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination,” Romney said during an online forum hosted by The New York Times. “I look at the polls, and the polls show that, among the names being floated as potential contenders in 2024, if you put President Trump in there, among Republicans, he wins in a landslide.”

Trump caused a political crisis when he refused to concede defeat to his Democratic rival Joe Biden after the November 2020 presidential election. On January 6, and before the attack on Capitol building, Trump told his loyalists in Washington, DC that his votes had been stolen, urging them to “stop the steal.”

Congressional lawmakers were at the time in the process of confirming Biden’s win in the disputed 2020 US presidential election. Biden’s victory was confirmed despite Trump’s claims of vote rigging.

Majority of Americans blame Trump for Capitol chaos: Poll

A majority of Americans have blamed US President Donald Trump for inciting his loyalists for violence at the Capitol earlier this month, according to a new poll.

The US House of Representatives impeached the ex-president for a historic second time last month over his role in the attack, which left five people dead, including a member of law enforcement.

But the then-Republican-controlled Senate acquitted the former president.

Trump and others hoping to run in the 2024 presidential election are set to address an annual gathering of conservative activists, the Conservative Political Action Conference, on Sunday.

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