Rick Scott, Chairman of the NRSC, presented President Donald J. Trump with the NRSC’s inaugural Champion for Freedom Award.
Courtesy of NRSC
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attends a swearing-in ceremony for the 117th Congress with Vice President Mike Pence while his wife, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, holds the Bible in the Old Senate Chambers in the U.S. Capitol, Washington , DC, January 3, 2021.
Kevin Dietsch | Pool | Reuters
One day after receiving his award, Trump allegedly attacked McConnell when the former president spoke to a group of Republican donors in Mar-a-Lago. Trump claimed that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., would have turned election results upside down if a Democratic candidate won.
“If that were Schumer instead of that stupid son of Mitch McConnell, they would never let it,” Trump told the crowd at the event, which was held by the Republican National Committee. “You would have fought against it.”
A source told NBC News that Trump stated that “a real leader” would never have accepted the electoral college findings showing he lost.
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Trump also followed up on McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who resigned as Trump’s transportation secretary the day after the Capitol uprising on Jan. 6, as supporters of the then president rioted through the halls of Congress, disrupting the process that confirmed Biden’s victory.
“I hired his wife,” attacked Trump. “Did he ever say thank you?”
“She suffered so much,” Trump said sarcastically.
McConnell has accused Trump of instigating the insurrection but voted against convicting the former president on his impeachment trial in the Senate in February.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Monday that its Champion of Freedom Award is given to “conservative leaders who have worked tirelessly to create good jobs, protect the values that make our country great, and support the Democrats’ socialist agenda.” to stop”.
“As President, Donald Trump provided three constitutional judges to the Supreme Court for the American people, cut taxes for middle-class families and job creation, and secured the border,” the NRSC said in a statement.
On Sunday, South Dakota’s second-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership, Minority Whip John Thune, criticized Trump for failing to attack McConnell.
When asked about Trump’s scathing remarks on Fox News Sunday, Thune said that “much of this rhetoric is part of the style and tone that goes with the former president.”
“But I think he and Mitch McConnell have a common goal,” said Thune.
“And that will bring the majority back in 2022, and hopefully that will be what binds us together in the end.”
