Giving Mitch Some Cover

Kentucky Republicans spared GOP Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell an embarrassing defeat on Saturday that would have called for him to ensure Donald Trump was not convicted in his Senate trial. Even Donald Trump isn't more powerful than the Turtle is his own backyard.

The Republican Party of Kentucky's State Central Committee rejected a resolution Saturday that would have urged Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to fully support former President Donald Trump and condemn his second impeachment.

The committee met Saturday to consider the proposal after the Republican Party of Nelson County announced more than 30 GOP county chairs and vice chairs had called for a meeting to consider the resolution aimed at the commonwealth's longtime senator.

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Mac Brown called the resolution out of order, and the majority of the committee agreed, a member told The Courier Journal after the meeting. The final vote agreeing the resolution should be deemed out of order was 134-49, the member said.

The party released a statement following the meeting, which it said had been called for by 28 members of the body.

"As a political party, we're in a unique position to bring all sides of our organization together to have conversations about the direction we are going in and what we expect from our elected officials," the statement said. The central committee "met in a special meeting called by a small group of individuals. In the end it is our intention to return our focus to bringing civility to the party and continue having larger conversations about how we can attract more voters and grow our party."

 

But Mitch isn't out of the woods quite yet.

Republican Party of Nelson County Chair Don Thrasher, who led the resolution effort, said the chairs who supported it will now bring a motion asking for McConnell's resignation, which he said is in the purview of the rules.

The committee has over 350 members, including the chairs and vice chairs of county-level Republican parties as well as elected officials who are part of the GOP (including McConnell himself), according to an RPK employee.

McConnell — who is widely credited with helping transform the commonwealth into a Republican stronghold over the past 30 years — still has stalwart supporters among the state GOP who trust his judgment, as the committee's decision Saturday made clear.

Trump has been accused of inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that led to the deaths of a police officer and four other people.

It also forced McConnell and other members of Congress to evacuate and temporarily halt their certification of President Joe Biden's electoral win — a victory Trump repeatedly and falsely claimed was illegitimate and should not be accepted, including in a speech he gave to supporters in Washington not long before the riot began.

McConnell was one of Trump's chief defenders during the former president's first impeachment and the ensuing trial, but this time he has taken a different approach. That upset some Kentucky Republicans, prompting Saturday's meeting.

 

I don't expect that resolution to pass either, but it's going to take some smoothing over to fix. Mitch may be able to survive for now, but if Trump actually is convicted, McConnell will get the blame.