McConnell Tried to Bar Trump From Inauguration, Book Says

Sen. Mitch McConnell wanted to shut Donald Trump out of President Biden’s inauguration, a new book claims. ABC News Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl says in Betrayal that the Kentucky Republican was more concerned with the danger of giving the outgoing president an opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power than he was with appearances, Politico reports. McConnell wanted four congressional leaders to send a letter to Trump telling him he was no longer invited to the event, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy protested. When word got back to Trump, via McCarthy and a McConnell adviser, separately, the then-president abruptly announced on Twitter that he wouldn’t attend.

That tweet was Trump’s last communication on that platform before being banned to prevent "risk of further incitement of violence." Karl’s book also says that while McConnell rebuked Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, he didn’t vote to impeach him, and encouraged Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to back off from calls for a bipartisan investigation of Trump's role. Trump has lashed out at McConnell most recently for backing the infrastructure bill, and says he never heard of McConnell’s proposed letter disinviting him from Biden’s inauguration, the Louisville Courier Journal reports. Trump said would "never have agreed" to attend the event, adding that the "old broken-down Crow, Mitch McConnell," had nothing to do with it. (More Mitch McConnell stories.)