Former President Donald Trump used his speech at a recent Republican National Committee event to air his grievances about former Vice President Mike Pence and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
During the event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida on Saturday, he reportedly expressed his disappointment with Pence for not trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“I wish that Mike Pence had the courage to send it back to the legislatures … I like him so much. I was so disappointed,” Trump said in a speech that, according to The Washington Post, was “light on his actual presidency” and “delivered more of a familiar litany of grievances that seemed to animate the crowd.”
In the lead up to Jan. 6, when Congress meets to certify the election results, Trump pressured Pence to use his role as a presiding officer in the Senate to overturn the election.
However, Pence said in a letter dated Jan. 6, “It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
“Some believe that as Vice President, I should be able to accept or reject electoral votes unilaterally. Others believe that electoral votes should never be challenged in a Joint Session of Congress. After a careful study of our Constitution, our laws, and our history, I believe neither view is correct,” he added.
Trump also took aim at McConnell for not moving to squash the impeachment trial against him — despite being acquitted by the Senate on the charge of incitement of insurrection.
“If that were Schumer instead of this dumb son of a b***h Mitch McConnell, they would never allow it to happen. They would have fought it,” he said of the trial.
He also called the Kentucky lawmaker a “stone cold loser.”
Trump has previously blasted McConnell as the “most unpopular politician in the country” and a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack.”
