President Trump on Thursday blasted Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for his vote opposing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., disregarding his childhood bout with polio and questioning his mental abilities.
“I was the one that got him to drop out of the leadership position, so he can’t love me. But he’s not voting against Bobby, he’s voting against me. But that’s all right. He endorsed me. You know that Mitch endorsed me, right?” Trump told reporters, crediting himself for McConnell dropping his Senate GOP leadership position.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pointed out that McConnell had polio, which the Kentucky Republican said influenced his decision to vote against Kennedy.
“I don’t know anything about, he had polio, he had polio,” Trump said.
Collins asked Trump if he was doubting that McConnell had polio, which Trump dismissed.
“I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is he shouldn’t have been leader, he knows that. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything. He’s a very bitter guy,” the president said.
“We have a very strong party, and he’s almost not even really a very powerful member. … He’s lost his power,” he added.
McConnell issued a blistering indictment of Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, saying he has watched how vaccines can save lives. McConnell was the only Republican to vote no on Kennedy’s nomination, despite other senators indicating they had lingering concerns about Kennedy’s vaccine views.
McConnell was also the lone GOP no vote against Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and one of only three Republicans who opposed Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary.
Kennedy was sworn in during a ceremony in the Oval Office later on Thursday.
“I feel sorry for Mitch. And I was one of the people that led — he wanted to go to the end, and he wanted to stay leader,” Trump said Thursday.
He added, “He’s not equipped, mentally. He wasn’t equipped 10 years ago, mentally, in my opinion. He let the Republican Party go to hell. If I didn’t come along, the Republican Party wouldn’t even exist right now. Mitch McConnell never really had it.”
Trump said McConnell was able to raise money as leader, so he had “a little loyalty” from GOP senators because he could give them a boost in campaigns.
“Senators would call me, and they’d say, ‘He wants to give me $20, $25 million. Can I take it?’ I’d say, ‘Take the money,’” Trump recalled.
McConnell dropped his leadership post at the end of the last Congress, and GOP Leader John Thune (S.D.) was elected in November to replace him. McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, served as Trump’s Transportation secretary from 2017 to 2021 and resigned following the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
