Hours after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the presidential race, former President Donald Trump received the endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
In a shocking admission, McConnell said that it came as “no surprise” that Trump will once again be the GOP presidential nominee for the 2024 election after he scored multiple victories over Haley on Super Tuesday.
“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States. It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support,” he said in a statement announcing his support for his known political foe.
“During his presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary — most importantly, the Supreme Court. I look forward to the opportunity of switching from playing defense against the terrible policies the Biden administration has pursued to a sustained offense geared towards making a real difference in improving the lives of the American people,” he added.
McConnell’s relationship with Trump has been sour since 2020 when the two reportedly had a falling out over Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Per Washington Examiner, McConnell stopped picking Trump’s calls. While he voted to acquit Trump at his impeachment trial in the Senate, McConnell made it clear that he believed Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the breach at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
However, the GOP frontrunner’s 2024 campaign manager Chris LaCivita and the top Senate Republican’s adviser Josh Holmes have been putting heads together on how to reunite their bosses, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The two staffers were the ones who negotiated the endorsement, which POLITICO says the two politicians did not directly speak about.
While he admitted that Trump would likely be the party’s nominee, McConnell has avoided an outright endorsement before now even as the majority of the Senate Republican Conference publicly backed him.
Two more endorsements from the Senate went to Trump that same Wednesday, with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) saying that the choice is not “even close.”
“No question. I’ve stayed out of primaries but now that it’s over, it’s over,” he stated.
The third Senatorial endorsement of the day came from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IO), whose backing marked the last one from the Senate GOP leadership conference. Despite her previous support for Haley, Ernst said that the “field is cleared, Donald Trump is the guy, and I’m going to support him.”
In a post to X, she wrote, “We must beat Joe Biden and get this country back on track. Donald Trump has my support.”
We must beat Joe Biden and get this country back on track. Donald Trump has my support.
— Joni Ernst (@joniernst) March 6, 2024