By Connor Carlin
Staff Writer
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) publicly called the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol last year a “violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power,” in a statement to reporters on Feb. 8. His comments represent a position which many in the GOP have been adamant in denying. He also condemned the resolution by the Republican National Committee (RNC), censuring Reps. Lynne Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for their participation in the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6 last year. McConnell is the highest ranking Republican leader to add his voice to a prominent minority who have pushed back on the RNC’s resolution, which has inflamed the GOP’s ongoing intra-party conflict over the Capitol insurrection.
The resolution in question was approved and issued Feb. 4, at the GOP’s winter meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, and represents the culmination of the party’s year-long indecision between condemning, defending and/or downplaying the attack on the Capitol. Rather than acting as a unifying force over this issue, the RNC has reignited divisions between the party’s dominant pro-Trump wing and anti-Trump minority wing going into the 2022 midterm season, particularly for the resolution’s language censuring Cheney and Kinzinger for the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” This language, which observers have seen as implying that the RNC believes the deadly Capitol riot was a legitimate political action, has been the subject of much controversy, prompting RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, who presided over the censure’s passage, to attempt to clarify that it referred to people such as Kathy Berden, a Michigan Republican Committeewoman subpoenaed by the 1/6 Commission for falsely claiming to be an elector in the 2020 election and signing fraudulent election documents. However, McDaniel defended the resolution and stood by Cheney and Kinzinger’s censure for “participating in Nancy Pelosi’s partisan committee.”
The larger message the resolution sends is that former President Trump continues to monopolize the GOP through not only its base, but its leadership. According to the New York Times, the resolution was drafted by McDaniels and David Bossie, a Trump loyalist committeeman from Maryland, and was co-sponsored by Frank Eathorne, chair of the Wyoming Republican Party. It should be mentioned that Bossie is also the President and Chairman of Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group best known for its involvement in the landmark campaign finance Supreme Court case Citizens United v. F.E.C (2010). Eathorne, according to whistleblowers, is a member of the far-right paramilitary group The Oath Keepers and attended the Capitol riot. Initial drafts of the resolution pushed by Bossie called for the complete expulsion of Cheney and Kinzinger from the party, and the “legitimate political discourse” language was reportedly changed from “nonviolent and legal political discourse.” Bossie, who is no stranger to controversy within the GOP, has supposedly been agitating behind the scenes in preparation for a run for McDaniel’s job, and the resolution serves as a way to sew division between her and Trump, considering that McDaniel has been more reticent to accept Trump’s 2020 election lies and negotiated for the less harsh compromise resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger rather than expelling them. While this is a possibility, it is impossible to know for certain what his intentions are.
Despite McDaniel’s efforts at damage control, a number of Republican Senators have pushed back on the resolution as a whole. Sens. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) separately reached out to McDaniel, who happens to be Romney’s niece, to express their concerns over the resolution’s implications. Romney, who was the GOP’s 2012 Presidential nominee, has been a prominent Trump critic since voting to convict the former President in both of his impeachment trials. He publicly stated that the resolution was a “very unfortunate decision”, and that he would raise money to support Cheney’s reelection campaign. Other Senators, including John Cornyn (R-TX), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV), have echoed Romney’s sentiments, objecting in particular to the RNC supposedly overstepping its bounds. Mitch McConnell has added his name to this seemingly growing list, but there are many in Republican leadership who feel the opposite about the resolution.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), chairman of the 159-member Republican Study Committee, wholeheartedly endorsed the resolution, saying that Cheney and Kinzinger were essentially Republicans-in-Name-Only and accused them of trying to prevent Republicans from winning back Congressional majorities in the 2022 midterms. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had a similar opinion, as did House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the second highest elected Republican after McConnell. Counter to McConnell, McCarthy has stood by his belief that the January 6th Commission is an illegitimate, partisan effort to target conservatives and has overstepped its authority. McCarthy has also repeatedly refused to speak with the House inquiry and has been consulting with attorney William Burck in preparation for a subpoena. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) couched his support in the idea that the resolution represented the GOP base’s view on the events of January 6th, further complicating the pro- and anti-Trump conflict wracking the party as it heads towards the midterms.
It is telling that the one thing Republicans have appeared to agree on concerning the resolution is that it is a bad look for the party. While censuring two of the party’s most prominent Trump critics will satisfy many conservatives within the Republican base, the implications of the GOP declaring that allegiance to Trump is a prerequisite for membership and that January 6th was “legitimate political discourse” only serves to exacerbate party divisions at a time when Republicans hoped to redirect attention to President Biden’s failings. McConnell is clearly well aware of this; his strong statement against the resolution comes after he oversaw Trump’s impeachment acquittal for inciting the Capitol riot and then blocked the creation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the attack, in line with the conservatives he now rebukes.
Already, McConnell’s message has been met by those conservatives in his party with dismissal and vitriol towards the Minority Leader, with Trump himself declaring that “Mitch McConnell does not speak for the Republican Party.” McConnell may want to move past the events of January 6th, along with many in Republican leadership, but as of now, it doesn’t seem to be going away quickly.
