There have been growing demands to immediately impeach President Donald Trump following the deadly riots, who saw his supporters breaking into the Capitol to block the Congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden. The president pressed Vice President Mike Pence, who informed him that he doesn't have the authority to block the certification process, to intervene anyway.
Trump even pushed McConnell to help him overturn the election results, but the majority leader warned Republicans not to join the president's assault on the Electoral College results. McConnell worked to pave the way for the Biden era while leaving no stone unturned in a bid to unite a shattered Republican Party by privately warning GOP members off Electoral College fracas in Congress, Associated Press reported.
McConnell did not issue a statement regarding the impeachment, while other Republicans continue to push back, because he is angry about pro-Trump supporters breaking into the US Capitol, a person with direct knowledge told CNN. Moreover, he is deliberately remaining mum about the impeachment because he is furious that Trump has shown no regret.
McConnell insists on seeing the article before voting and has refrained from making commitments on voting to convict the president. It can be recalled that during Trump's first impeachment. McConnell accused the Democrats of trying to blame Trump for a pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens.
McConnell has slowly been moving his conference away from the president, despite realizing that they aren't all supporting him at the moment. Some GOP sources claim that if McConnell supports a conviction, Trump will likely be convicted by 67 senators in the impeachment hearing.
Several Republican senators are also tight-lipped about backing the conviction, indicating that they too could support a conviction in a bid to remove Trump from the party. McConnell's thoughts about impeaching the president were first reported by The New York Times.
It is no secret that the relationship between two of the Republican Party's most powerful men Trump and McConnell, has collapsed. A source familiar with their relationship told CNN that the Senate majority leader is furious with Trump, noting that he hates the president for what he did last week following the attacks on the Capitol that claimed five lives, including of a Capitol Hill police officer.
Trump and McConnell have still not had a meeting since last week's riot, according to another source. The source suggests that the two men haven't spoken since McConnell acknowledged Biden as President-elect during his floor speech in Dec. last year.