www.washingtonexaminer.com Open in urlscan Pro
2606:4700::6812:55b  Public Scan

Form analysis
4 forms found in the DOM

POST #

<form class="td-login-form-wrap" action="#" method="post">
  <div class="td-login-panel-title"><span>Welcome!</span>Log into your account</div>
  <div class="td_display_err"></div>
  <div class="td-login-inputs"><input class="td-login-input" autocomplete="username" type="text" name="login_email" id="login_email-mob" value="" required=""><label for="login_email-mob">your username</label></div>
  <div class="td-login-inputs"><input class="td-login-input" autocomplete="current-password" type="password" name="login_pass" id="login_pass-mob" value="" required=""><label for="login_pass-mob">your password</label></div>
  <input type="button" name="login_button" id="login_button-mob" class="td-login-button" value="LOG IN">
  <div class="td-login-info-text">
    <a href="#" id="forgot-pass-link-mob">Forgot your password?</a>
  </div>
  <div class="td-login-register-link">
  </div>
</form>

POST #

<form id="loginForm" action="#" method="post">
  <div class="td-login-inputs"><input class="td-login-input" autocomplete="username" type="text" name="login_email" id="login_email" value="" required=""><label for="login_email">your username</label></div>
  <div class="td-login-inputs"><input class="td-login-input" autocomplete="current-password" type="password" name="login_pass" id="login_pass" value="" required=""><label for="login_pass">your password</label></div>
  <input type="button" name="login_button" id="login_button" class="wpb_button btn td-login-button" value="Login">
</form>

POST #

<form id="forgotpassForm" action="#" method="post">
  <div class="td-login-inputs"><input class="td-login-input" type="text" name="forgot_email" id="forgot_email" value="" required=""><label for="forgot_email">your email</label></div>
  <input type="button" name="forgot_button" id="forgot_button" class="wpb_button btn td-login-button" value="Send My Password">
</form>

GET https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/

<form method="get" class="tdb-search-form" action="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/">
  <div class="tdb-search-form-inner"><input class="tdb-head-search-form-input" placeholder=" " type="text" value="" name="s" autocomplete="off"><button class="wpb_button wpb_btn-inverse btn tdb-head-search-form-btn" title="Search"
      type="submit"><span>Search</span></button></div>
</form>

Text Content

Sign in
 * Home
 * News
 * Policy
 * Campaigns
 * Opinion
 * Crime
 * Restoring America
 * Watch
 * Magazine

Sign in

Welcome!Log into your account

your username
your password
Forgot your password?

Password recovery
Recover your password

your email
Washington Examiner
Subscribe
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account

your username
your password
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password

your email
A password will be e-mailed to you.
Search

Washington Examiner
Sign In
Subscribe
 * News
   * White House
   * Senate
   * House
   * Campaigns
   * Business
   * Justice
   * Crime
   * Washington Secrets
 * Policy
   * Defense & National Security
   * Energy and Environment
   * Education
   * Immigration
   * Finance and Economy
   * Healthcare
   * Foreign Policy
   * Technology
   * Infrastructure
   * Space
   * Think Tanks
 * Campaigns
 * Crime
 * Opinion
   * Columnists
   * Editorials
   * Beltway Confidential
 * Restoring America
 * Watch
   * Latest Clips
   * The Debrief
   * Reporter’s Notebook
 * Magazine
   * Magazine
   * Archives
   * Quarterly Briefing
   * Book of the Month
   * Crosswords
 * Newsletters

More




MITCH’S ‘MISCALCULATION’: WHY MCCONNELL’S IMPEACHMENT OPPOSITION FUELED TRUMP’S
COMEBACK



By Emily Jacobs
Facebook

Twitter

WhatsApp

Linkedin

Email

Print

February 2, 2024 8:44 am
Facebook

Twitter

WhatsApp

Linkedin

Email

Print

Playback speedNormal
Quality-

Playback speed
0.25
0.5
0.75
Normal
1.25
1.5
1.75
2


More Videos ‹

01:48
Next Video
1. James Biden to testify to Congress in February
03:39
Next Video
2. Reporter's Notebook: Trump's big fundraising numbers and legal costs
06:23
Next Video
3. Reporter's Notebook: Biden grapples with federal workers who disagree with
him on Israel
05:59
Next Video
4. Reporter's Notebook: Biden's response to Iran over US servicemen overseas
deaths
04:51
Next Video
5. Reporter's Notebook: The international reaction to Biden's LNG pause
04:41
Next Video
6. Reporter's Notebook: What's in the bipartisan tax bill?
01:44
Next Video
7. Fani Willis calls on judge to nix hearing over ‘meritless’ allegations
06:01
Next Video
8. The Debrief with Chris Irvine: Conservatives' Taylor Swift conspiracy theory
04:58
Next Video
9. The Debrief with Conn Carroll: Biden's border problem and the Mideast
disaster
01:19
Next Video
10. Joe Rogan receives new $250 million Spotify deal
02:12
Next Video
11. The Kamala contradiction — sagging approval, strong campaigning
01:17
Next Video
12. FBI agents who searched Mar-a-Lago may have made a big mistake: Report
01:13
Next Video
13. WEX MIN: Child Tax credit, Ken Buck disdain for Mayorkas impeachment, VA
to-go cocktails...
01:30
Next Video
14. Fani Willis will not recuse herself from Trump election subversion case
despite scandals
01:18
Next Video
15. ‘Clearly we’re separated’: John and Gisele Fetterman mock social media
rumors over...
02:07
Next Video
16. GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer calls for ethics investigation into Ilhan Omar
Somali remarks
01:34
Next Video
17. Fani Willis fired employee who raised misuse of funds concerns: Report
01:28
Next Video
18. Biden to visit East Palestine one year after train derailment
01:41
Next Video
19. House panel advances Mayorkas articles of impeachment
01:42
Next Video
20. Trump privately brags he is ‘more popular’ than Taylor Swift ahead of
possible Biden...
03:02
Next Video
21. WEX Wakeup: Cori Bush on her DOJ investigation; Monthlong delay in student
aid data

Unmute
Ad

 
00:18
/
00:35
Ad ends in 16s
LIVE









Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is being forced to reckon with
former President Donald Trump’s hold on the GOP three years after voting against
an impeachment effort that would have made him ineligible for a second term.

The top Senate Republican famously stopped taking Trump’s calls as he refused to
give up his push to overturn the 2020 election results. Their relationship has
been in disrepair ever since — despite McConnell refusing to support Democrats’
second impeachment effort against him after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 



McConnell helped block Trump’s impeachment trial from reaching a guilty verdict,
saying at the time that he would have “carefully considered” the articles had
the former president still been in office because he was “practically and
morally responsible” for provoking the riot. The Senate vote was 57 for “guilty”
and 43 votes for “not guilty” on Feb. 13, 2021, falling short of 67 votes needed
to convict Trump.

McConnell voted “not guilty” and did not urge his colleagues to convict. The
decision by the top Republican to oppose the impeachment when Trump was his most
vulnerable cost the 10 additional GOP votes needed to bar Trump from any
political return permanently.

“Obviously, in hindsight, it was a miscalculation,” said Grant Reeher, professor
of political science at Syracuse University. “If you go back to 2020, I get what
[McConnell was] thinking. He’s thinking this is going to run its course, that
what he did on Jan. 6, we’re going to look back on this, people are gonna want
to move on and turn the page, and they didn’t. That was a miscalculation.”



“The miscalculation was just Trump’s ability to weather things like that,”
Reeher added.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans whipped their members on the 2021 impeachment
vote. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) said at the time that he agreed
with McConnell’s assertion that the vote was “an issue of conscience.”

“We will, of course, try to find out how members feel,” the No. 2 Senate
Democrat said. “But in terms of arm-twisting, when it comes to impeachment, you
just don’t do that.”

Some Republicans are questioning that decision as Trump cements his position as
the party’s likely presidential nominee. 



“I think a lot of people in Congress, good friends of mine, who would take the
vote back if they could, because I think a lot of these members of Congress, on
the second impeachment, they thought Trump was dead,” former House Speaker Paul
Ryan said in December. “They thought after Jan. 6 he wasn’t going to have a
comeback.” 

“He was dead, so they figured, ‘I’m not going to take this heat, vote against
this impeachment because he’s gone anyway,’” he continued. “But what’s happened
is he’s been resurrected. There’s lots of reasons for that. But he has been. So
I think there’s a lot of people who already regret not getting him out of the
way when they could have.”

“My colleagues have to live with their own decision,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski
(R-AK), one of the seven GOP senators who voted to impeach, told the Washington
Examiner on Wednesday when asked if she regrets that her colleagues did not do
the same.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), another Trump foe, said when asked if he thought it a
mistake that his party opposed impeachment after Jan. 6: “Certainly that was my
point of view. But other people voted their conscience. I voted mine. I don’t
think it was a political calculation. I think people made an assessment of
whether he was guilty of an offense that violated the constitutional standard.”



McConnell, who declined to comment, made a legal argument in 2021 that Trump
couldn’t be convicted because he left office.

“By the strict criminal standard, the president’s speech probably was not
incitement,” McConnell said after voting to acquit. “However, in the context of
impeachment, the Senate might have decided this was acceptable shorthand for the
reckless actions that preceded the riot. But in this case, that question is
moot. Because former President Trump is constitutionally not eligible for
conviction.”

One senior political consultant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that
getting McConnell to support Trump’s impeachment would be the equivalent of
getting a small dog to jump over Niagara Falls.

“The suggestion that McConnell of all people would engage in that type of
political suicide mission is completely unrealistic,” the consultant told the
Washington Examiner.

Scott Jennings, a longtime McConnell adviser, emphatically rejected the idea
that McConnell miscalculated Trump’s power in the GOP by opposing his conviction
in the Senate, instead saying that the GOP leader was focused on his members.

“It is McConnell’s job to know where his conference is on any given issue at any
given time,” Jennings told the Washington Examiner. “In that particular case, I
think it was pretty obvious by the time the vote rolled around where most of the
Republicans had decided to be.”

“The idea that any congressional leader can snap their fingers and force every
member of their conference to do anything at any given time is the amateur-hour
view of how Congress works,” Jennings said.

The Senate GOP conference has many centrist and establishment Republicans with
penchants for bipartisanship. Several of Trump’s GOP skeptics were able to
develop decent working relationships with the former president while in office,
though a number of those have since deteriorated.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) listens as President Donald Trump
speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on July 20, 2020,
in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
that ensued left his standing with most Senate Republicans in near disrepair.
Republicans went on to blame Trump for the party’s incumbents losing runoff
races in Georgia, handing Democrats control of the Senate.

The former president’s GOP detractors grew more critical after Republicans
underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, only retaking the House by a slim
margin and failing to regain Senate control.

McConnell is not among the more than half of Republican senators who have
endorsed Trump’s 2024 bid. He has committed to not weighing in on the
presidential primary this cycle. That hasn’t stopped him from allowing Trump to
weigh in on major policy matters being debated by the conference, including in
ways that could derail McConnell’s personal priorities, such as passing the
defense supplemental spending bill.

A bipartisan working group of senators has spent months negotiating a border
security deal, which would be added to a foreign spending bill that includes aid
for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Negotiators on both sides have acknowledged
that the border measure is critical to passing the legislation through both
chambers.

McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have put on a united
front to pass the supplemental. McConnell, who has been Ukraine’s staunchest GOP
ally, has said he supports the larger supplemental bill as long as it includes
“credible” border policy changes.

The two have been in lockstep on supporting the effort to combine Israel and
Ukraine aid. They have also backed the inclusion of border security, though they
differ on specifics, as a means to push the bill through both chambers. Taiwan
assistance was additionally included to help broaden support for the bill.

The top Senate Republican had been urging his members to get on board with the
bill because he did not believe Democrats would agree to any border reforms if
ousted from the White House in November. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

While more than half of the 49 GOP senators support some type of continued aid
to Ukraine, there is a vocal part of the conference that strongly opposes such
measures. There is also the matter of Trump, who has significant sway with House
Republicans and has begun urging GOP lawmakers to oppose the deal.

Trump’s influence appeared to have affected McConnell, who described him to GOP
colleagues as the party’s likely nominee whose viewpoints merited recognition.
The comments prompted furor and confusion around the Senate, leading McConnell
to tell his members that he had not abandoned the bill at Trump’s request.

 * Tags
 * 2024 Elections
 * Donald Trump
 * Impeachment
 * Mitch McConnell
 * News
 * Republican Party
 * Senate
 * Washington D.C.

RELATED CONTENT


LANKFORD DEFENDS BORDER BILL OVER GOP BACKLASH: ‘READ IT FOR YOURSELF’

February 5, 2024 10:14 am


OVERSIGHT BOARD ORDERS META TO LABEL AI-EDITED VIDEOS OF POLITICIANS

February 5, 2024 10:07 am


WHY DEAN PHILLIPS CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE BIDEN COULD BE OVER

February 5, 2024 9:56 am


TAYLOR SWIFT VS. ARIANA GRANDE AND THE PERIL OF PETER PAN...

February 5, 2024 9:44 am

Sponsored
Continue watching

Trump Heard on Tape Talking About ‘Highly Confidential’ Documents
Paid Content




RELATED CONTENT


LANKFORD DEFENDS BORDER BILL OVER GOP BACKLASH: ‘READ IT FOR YOURSELF’

February 5, 2024 10:14 am


OVERSIGHT BOARD ORDERS META TO LABEL AI-EDITED VIDEOS OF POLITICIANS

February 5, 2024 10:07 am


WHY DEAN PHILLIPS CAMPAIGN TO CHALLENGE BIDEN COULD BE OVER

February 5, 2024 9:56 am


TAYLOR SWIFT VS. ARIANA GRANDE AND THE PERIL OF PETER PAN...

February 5, 2024 9:44 am


Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
 * About Examiner
 * Magazine Archive
 * Policies and Standards
 * Terms Of Service
 * Subscription Terms of Use
 * Privacy Policy

 * Your Privacy Choices
 * Transparency In Coverage
 * Advertise
 * Contact
 * Subscribe
 * Newsletters
 * Careers
 * Facebook
 * Twitter

© Washington Examiner 2024




PRIVACY CENTER - US

You, or in some states your legally authorized agent, may use the category
buttons on the left (or below on mobile) to enable or disable cookies or similar
technologies used for each purpose. Click on the different category headings to
find out more and change our default settings. However, disabling some types of
cookies or similar technologies may impact your experience when using our sites.

The use of third-party cookies or similar technologies for targeted advertising
may constitute a sale or “sharing” of personal information under the California
Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) or other various laws. You may have the right to
opt out of the use of cookies or similar technologies for targeted Advertising,
depending on your state of residence. To opt out, ensure that processing for
Targeted Advertising and Social Media purposes is disabled below, if shown.

Please note, these controls only opt you out of Targeted Advertising and any
sales/sharing related to targeted advertising on our Site. In order to exercise
your right to opt out of all sales/sharing by MediaDC, you may visit our privacy
rights portal, which allow you to exercise your other rights, including the
right to opt-out of sales/sharing in other contexts. Please view the Regional
Supplement of our privacy policy, including the US State & California Privacy
Rights & Choices section, for more information about your rights and our privacy
practices.

You may opt out of all cookies/similar technologies (except those that are
essential or functional) by changing your settings, below. The cookie preference
tool is device and browser specific. If you delete or clear cookies or change
devices or browsers, you may need to reset your cookie preferences. If you opt
out, you may continue to see advertising, including ads that may be based on
personal information processed before you opted out. You may also enable the
Global Privacy Control to opt out of targeted advertising and limit related
sales/sharing of your data.
More information
Allow All


MANAGE CONSENT PREFERENCES

ESSENTIAL COOKIES

Always Active

These technologies are necessary for us to deliver our services to you. For
example, these technologies allow us to load content on the page, perform
security functions, or store mandatory preferences (e.g. opt-out of sale
preferences). These technologies cannot be disabled, and if you configure your
browser to block these features, our services or certain features may not
function.

TARGETED ADVERTISING COOKIES

Targeted Advertising Cookies

These cookies enable us and our advertising partners to serve you with relevant
targeted advertisements based on your interests and profiles held by us or our
advertising partners and ad networks. You might see these advertisements on our
sites or on other sites you visit. These technologies may collect information
about you on our site, as well as third-party sites, and these technologies may
be used to associate the information collected across sites and contexts. If you
disable these technologies, you will still see ads, but they may be less
relevant.

ANALYTICS COOKIES

Analytics Cookies

These technologies are used to analyze the use and performance of our services
so that we can measure and improve those services. For example, we may create
analytics designed to understand how many people visit our websites, how they
reach us, how they navigate the services, how the service performs, and what
content is popular. This allows us to improve your experience on our services,
and if you disable these services, our sites may not perform optimally.

FUNCTIONAL COOKIES

Functional Cookies

These technologies are used to provide specific features or functions of our
site or to personalize your experience. For example, these technologies are used
to maintain log-in sessions for registered users or to store your preferences
(e.g. regarding the use of cookies). If you disable these technologies, the
features may not function properly, and you may be required to reconfigure your
preferences.

Back Button


COOKIE LIST



Search Icon
Filter Icon

Clear
checkbox label label
Apply Cancel
Consent Leg.Interest
checkbox label label
checkbox label label
checkbox label label

Reject All Confirm My Choices







Receive the latest news, updates and offers as they happen.


AllowNo Thanks