THE TRUMP PROGRAM GOES UP AGAINST MCCONNELL'S LAST F.U.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitch McConnell said after the 2020 election that then-President Donald Trump was “stupid as well as being ill-tempered,” a “despicable human being” and a “narcissist,” according to excerpts from a new biography of the Senate Republican leader that will be released this month.

CNN
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Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s potential successors have been crisscrossing the country, cozying up to former President Donald Trump and barnstorming key battleground states in the final days of the election to help their party win back the Senate — and help themselves, too.

Sen. John Cornyn and Senate GOP Whip John Thune, the two top candidates to succeed McConnell, have been pouring millions into GOP candidates’ campaign accounts and stumping for them on the trail — part of an effort to lock up support when the secret-ballot leadership election takes place on November 13. GOP senators and top aides say the race could go either way.

A major wild card hanging over the race: The fallout from the presidential election that takes place the week before and the role that Trump will play in trying to anoint a leader if he wins. Yet if Trump loses, Thune and Cornyn will have to make their case on how the GOP can dig out of the political wilderness, arguments that senators say could carry great weight as they cast their secret ballots.

Nevertheless, both Cornyn and Thune recognize Trump’s potential sway, especially with a faction of the GOP conference, and have been zeroing in on bolstering their ties with the former president over the last several months.

When Trump stumped in Reno, Nevada last month, Cornyn was pictured next to the former president, both flashing a grin and a thumbs up. And when Trump taped a podcast interview in October with Joe Rogan in Austin, Texas, Cornyn was on the tarmac.