The comments widen the rift between senior Republicans over the party's direction
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Donald Trump declared war on Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell and threatened to fight to unseat other critics within his party unless they backed his "America First agenda" on Monday night.
It comes after Mr McConnell, the most senior Republican senator, wrote a scathing op-ed in which he said the former president "bears moral responsibility" for the attack on the US Capitol.
In a 600-word statement, Mr Trump called the Kentucky senator a “dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” who will "never do what needs to be done" to win.
The former president, 74, warned Republican senators they would not "win again" if they stuck with Mr McConnell.
"Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First," Mr Trump said.
It was Trump's longest statement since leaving office
Credit: AFP
The former president is thought to be considering backing nearly a dozen candidates who intend to challenge Republicans that have publicly broken with him.
He added: "The Republican Party can never again be respected or strong with political ‘leaders’ like Sen. Mitch McConnell at its helm."
Mr Trump’s extraordinary rebuke of his once loyal lieutenant highlights the widening rift in the Republican Party over what role the former president ought to play in the party’s future now that he has left office.
With his Twitter account still suspended, Mr Trump chose to release the lengthy statement through his political action committee, three days after he was acquitted in his second impeachment trial for inciting an insurrection of the Capitol.
Despite escaping conviction, seven Republican senators joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict Mr Trump, making it the most bipartisan impeachment trial vote ever.
Mr McConnell voted to acquit Mr Trump on the basis, he argued, that the impeachment of a former president was unconstitutional.
But at the conclusion of the trial, Mr McConnell penned a scathing op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, in which he excoriated Mr Trump’s behaviour during and after the riots as "unconscionable" and suggested the former president could still be criminally liable for his actions.
Mr McConnell’s decision to speak to the Wall Street Journal was seen as a move to reassure wealthy donors who have threatened to desert the party as a result of Mr Trump’s actions during and in the wake of the Capitol attack.
In his statement on Tuesday night, Mr Trump argued that Mr McConnell bore responsibility for Republicans losing control of the Senate in November because he refused to sanction larger direct payments for Americans in a coronavirus relief package.
“I single-handedly saved at least 12 Senate seats,” Mr Trump claimed, “and then came the Georgia disaster, where we should have won both US Senate seats, but McConnell matched the Democrat offer of $2,000 stimulus checks with $600. How does that work?”
He also took credit for Mr McConnell winning another six-year term in the Senate, where the 78-year-old has served since 1984, and wielded hefty power as majority leader over the past six years.
"My only regret is that McConnell ‘begged’ for my strong support and endorsement before the great people of Kentucky in the 2020 election, and I gave it to him," Mr Trump said.
"Without my endorsement, McConnell would have lost, and lost badly."
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