Report: McConnell Feared Trump Would Pull Another Jan. 6 at Biden’s Inauguration

On January 20, 2021, Donald Trump became just the fourth president in U.S. history to skip his successor‘s inauguration, following in the footsteps of John Adams in 1801, John Quincy Adams in 1829, and Andrew Johnson in 1869. The move, while ridiculously petty, capped off four years of ridiculous pettiness from the then 74-year-old man-child, who simply refused to admit that he’d lost the election and that someone else was going to be president. Instead of sitting on the platform and watching Joe Biden be sworn in, Trump gave a sad little speech from Joint Base Andrews in which he told his followers to “have a good life,“ and then took his final ride on Air Force One, landing in Palm Beach just before 11 a.m.

At the time, we all mocked him for being an immature, overgrown brat who couldn‘t swallow his pride for an hour or so and let the spotlight be on someone else. In truth, it was undoubtedly for the best that Trump’s ego wouldn’t allow him to attend the proceedings, as who the hell knows what he would have gotten up to if he’d been there. Would he have ripped off his shirt to reveal a fresh tattoo reading, “Legitimate President”? Would he have grabbed the mic from Jennifer Lopez and told the crowd, “Excuse me, you can all go home because I won the election“? Would he have signaled for his most deranged supporters to breach the security lines and help him stage a coup? These all sound legitimately crazy, but legitimately crazy was what we were dealing with—it had just been two weeks prior that he sicced a violent mob on the Capitol to burn down democracy in his name.

Anyway, as it turns out, at least one person was extremely concerned about what kind of stunt Trump would have pulled if he was there and tried to preemptively have him removed from the guest list.

Per Politico:

The level of distrust that Mitch McConnell had for then president Donald Trump in the wake of the deadly January 6 riots on Capitol Hill was greater than previously known. The then Senate majority leader sought to have Trump disinvited from Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on January 20, a new book, Betrayal, by ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl reveals. According to Karl, McConnell “felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.” McConnell even wanted to have the four congressional leaders write a letter to Trump informing him he had been disinvited, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opposed the idea, Karl reports, “arguing it would be an important message of unity” to have Trump attend.

McConnell’s letter and his attempt to stop Trump from coming to the inauguration never came to fruition. Karl writes that’s because after a top adviser to the Kentucky Republican informed Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows that McConnell wanted to disinvite Trump and McCarthy separately told the White House of McConnell’s plan, Trump preemptively put out a tweet—his very last on the platform—announcing his decision to not attend.… Spokespersons for Trump and McConnell did not comment on the record for this story.

Of course, McConnell would go on the next month to find Trump not guilty of inciting the attack on the Capitol, so don’t start hailing the minority leader as a folk icon just yet. Still, there is obviously no love lost between the two men, who have clearly decided to dissolve their little axis of evil after four years of tolerating one another in order to amass as much power as possible.

At one time, Trump described McConnell as his “ace in the hole” in a foreword to McConnell’s autobiography, and the two worked together to usher in a wave of conservative justices. But they also famously distrusted the other, with Trump frequently criticizing McConnell for not doing more to move his agenda. The two most powerful Republicans are now publicly at odds as Trump once again criticized McConnell, this time over his support for the bipartisan infrastructure bill set to be signed into law by Biden on Monday.

In public statements this past week, Trump has taken issue with the substance of the bill and lashed out at the Kentucky Republican for supporting the measure, which includes $550 billion in new spending for improvements and updates to public bridges, roads, airports, waterways, and even broadband. Trump derided McConnell as an “old crow” and dared him to appear at Monday’s signing ceremony at the White House. McConnell said he has no plans to attend. “It gives Biden and the Democrats a victory just as they were falling off the cliff!” Trump said on Saturday night. Privately, the scorn is even harsher. Trump has plotted ways to try and rid McConnell of his post atop the Senate GOP, should the party take back power in the midterms. And he’s accused the senator of sabotaging him while he was in office by resisting infrastructure legislation then.

Amid the rancor, McConnell has shrugged. According to senior Republican aides, the senator believes his job is safe, and there are no plans to recalibrate or back down from his support of the infrastructure bill, which he has called a “godsend” for Kentucky.

Trump’s outbursts over the infrastructure deal are, of course, the rantings of a bitter man who was never able to pass one of his own. “I think [Trump] is upset he didn’t get it done and is looking for reasons to attack Republicans and McConnell in particular,” a senior Republican aide told Politico. “If it was a truly political vote on something it would be one thing, but it’s a substantive piece of legislation that could be good for your district, and to punish someone would be so beyond the pale that it doesn’t make sense.”

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In other “Republicans escaping accountability for literally everything” news…

Kenosha judge continues to have Kyle Rittenhouse’s back

So that‘s nice for the kid.

The Trumps bid their Washington hotel adieu

It’s been purchased for a large chunk of change with the buyers, unsurprisingly, electing to strip the name and any association with the former first family from the building. Per Bloomberg:

Donald Trump’s family-run company reached a deal to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million, after which the property will be branded as Waldorf Astoria, according to people familiar with the matter. A Miami-based investment firm, CGI Merchant Group, is in contract to acquire the hotel lease for the Trump International Hotel, situated less than a mile away from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, the people said, who declined to be identified because the matter is private. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter, they said. The buyer plans to remove the Trump name and reached a deal with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to convert the property to a Waldorf Astoria managed by Hilton.

Trump won the rights to develop the hotel, located in Washington’s Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue, in 2012, leasing the building from the federal government. The hotel has been a prized asset for the Trump Organization, and Trump rejected calls to sell the hotel when he was elected president. Trump’s company has been engaged in off-and-on efforts to sell the hotel since 2019, when it floated an asking price of more than $500 million, Bloomberg News previously reported. 

Between 2016 and 2020, the hotel was the place where GOP lawmakers, corporate executives with business before the DOJ, reps of foreign governments, and anyone looking to kiss the ring knew their money would go far. “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’ Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” an Asian diplomat told The Washington Post in 2016.

In February the Washingtonian reported that servers at the hotel’s restaurant were required to follow a strict seven-step protocol for serving Trump his Diet Coke; that the size of his dining companion’s steak had to be smaller than his; that mini glass bottles of Heinz ketchup were to be opened “in front of [him], taking care to ensure he could hear the seal make the ‘pop’ sound”; and that “a tray of junk food needed to be available for every Trump visit: Lay’s potato chips (specifically, sour cream and onion), Milky Way, Snickers, Nature Valley Granola Bars, Tic Tacs, gummy bears, Chips Ahoy, Oreos, Nutter Butters, Tootsie Rolls, chocolate-covered raisins, and Pop-Secret.”

Last month, the House Oversight Committee found that despite all the built-in business, the hotel lost over $73 million while Trump was in office.

Elsewhere!

Beto O’Rourke to Challenge Abbott for Texas Governor Next Year (Bloomberg)

Republicans Gain Heavy House Edge in 2022 as Gerrymandered Maps Emerge (The Washington Post)

Pfizer Fights to Keep Its $36 Billion COVID Recipe a Secret (Bloomberg)

A newly disclosed memo reveals Trump’s plot to turn the military into his personal goon squad (The Washington Post)

Hospital revokes Houston doctor’s privileges for “spreading dangerous misinformation” about COVID on Twitter (The Washington Post)

“He’s nuts and he’s got a vendetta”: Cuomo won’t leave New York alone (Politico)

Is a 4-day workweek the answer to employee burnout? Most American workers say yes (CNBC)

Elon Musk Taunts Bernie Sanders, Suggests He’ll Sell More Tesla Stock (Bloomberg)

An online dating service targeting Harvard students was recently revealed to be an elaborate prank and the brainchild of an MIT student. (Boston Globe)

Parisians launch a last-ditch attempt to halt the construction of a €700-million “giant piece of brie” skyscraper (Telegraph)

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