We're learning more about Mitch McConnell and just how excited he was on
January six, because he felt that the January six riots would discredit
Donald Trump and finally rid the Republican Party of the Trump era.
But boy was he mistaken?
Now, this is the latest revelation coming out of the book that was
published by the New York Times reporters.
We've been talking about it for the last several weeks.
The title of the book is this will not pass its forthcoming and
here's what we know about the latest reporting about it.
I feel exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally totally
discredited himself.
McConnell told Jonathan Martin,
one of the authors of a new book called This Will Not Pass.
When asked about his feelings on the violence and
the rioters again, January 6th.
Trump the Kentucky Republican said, was pretty thoroughly discredited by this.
He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger McConnell said,
standing in the doorway of the capital after midnight.
Couldn't have happened at a better time.
Now, that night with the attack seared in his mind,
McConnell took a strident tone against Trump and
his desire to slash his influence going forward, according to the book.
Citing the 2014 midterm elections where McConnell attacked some
of the fringe far right candidates.
He said he would take Trump and his ilk down in the 2022 midterms.
McConnell tells his staff that Trump is a despicable person and
says he will take him on politically.
We crush the sons of bitches.
He said to Martin according to the book and
that's what we're going to do in the primary in 2022.
Things didn't work out that way, did they McConnell?
>> So there's a couple of super important things here and then there's a couple of
interesting things that I haven't seen anybody else talk about.
So number one, Mitch McConnell despises Donald Trump.
Okay, so that's absolutely clear.
Number two, Mitch McConnell apparently can be wrong.
I've said this before.
I think Mitch McConnell is probably the best politician of my lifetime and
I hate to say that.
I think he's a terrible, terrible person, but he runs circles around Democrats.
He runs circles around everybody else in the Republican Party and
he does that by the way by collecting a billion dollars from donors.
A lot of the senators are still on his side despite all the pressure from trump
because he gives them money, he gives them millions of dollars that he raised.
So for him to be this tactically wrong is a bit stunning and
it goes to show you that we live in interesting times.
I've never seen McConnell be this wrong.
>> So to be fair to McConnell, which I never thought I would say,
although we do like to be fair to everyone, even those we disagree with.
It's hard to believe that after what transpired that day,
a huge portion of the country would not only be supportive of it, but
would provide cover for it because it was shocking.
It was such a shocking event, right?
Look, this country has had many shocking events in its history and
I don't want to minimize that.
But to see all those videos of Trump supporters breaking into the Capitol,
treating law enforcement the way they did that day,
with brutality, with force with violence.
You would assume that even the most ardent Trump supporters would have
a line that they wouldn't want these people to cross, but they crossed it and
trump supporters supported it.
And so I don't really begrudge McConnell for the miscalculation here,
because I think he was really under the assumption the naive assumption.
Now, in retrospect that no people actually do want to protect our democracy,
they do value our democratic system.
And this is gonna be the final, like, this is gonna be the straw
that breaks the camel's back, but it didn't end up working out that way.
>> All right, well then I'll give myself credit because I never once thought that
Republican voters were going to abandon Trump for that.
And you go back and watch all the videos from the time.
And I never once thought there was a 1% chance of conviction after
impeachment for this.
The Republicans voters love Trump, but just as importantly,
they hate the establishment and that's what McConnell can't understand.
That's what no one in Washington can understand because they
are the establishment.
Most of all the reporters, they just keep one day like they look at the polls and
politicians come in anywhere from 7% popularity, like they peak at like 15%.
The media is not that different.
The mainstream media is generally loathed in this country,
but they see those polls and they go, we don't believe it.
Because in their world everybody loves them, right?
They live in Washington there in that bubble and
they're like what Bobby likes me and Susie likes me.
No, this pole must be wrong, it's not wrong.
The American people and the right wing particularly despise the establishment.
And that's why right now as we stand Mitch McConnell is the single most unpopular
politician in the country because the left hates him, rightfully so.
And now the Republicans hate him because he crossed Donald Trump.
So McConnell and Trump fought and for the first time McConnell lost.
And that is now he is now back down and he is saying okay Trump's fine,
it's okay and he's backpedaling out of the room.
>> And remember McConnell helped to construct, I don't wanna say rigged,
but he helped to construct certainly like a judicial system,
that is very much leaning towards the Republican party in every way.
Helping to confirm hundreds of federal judges under Trump's watch.
Helping to bulldoze through the Supreme Court
nominees that Trump had chosen during his term.
Look, McConnell, it's interesting because he helped to construct
the very system that's now, very likely gonna work against him.
And I kind of like that twist to this whole narrative, right?
I do enjoy that although we end up suffering along with it.
>> Yeah, to that point and there's a giant silver lining here.
At least one person in our lifetime has defeated the establishment.
It sucks that the one person who defeated it is even worse than them,
is a bigger maniac, even more corrupt, even bigger liar.
No it is a silver lining because what if you did the same exact strategy as Trump
but you weren't a monster.
Like you could do it from the left and you could call out their corruption,
you could drain the swamp and actually mean it.
Our number one opponent if I'm being honest and I hate to say it, but
it's the mainstream media.
They're the ones who always block us from getting our message to the American people
and we don't have the money and the celebrity that trump had.
We don't have the money that McConnell has or that Pelosi has.
But if a progressive ever breaks through in the mainstream media and
bullies everyone that should be bullied.
Hey you took a bribe, you took a bribe, hey that's $2 million there,
$1 million there.
Overall Pelosi, you've taken a billion dollars McConnell,
you've taken a billion dollars.
What the hell did Exxon Mobil give you that money for etc.
And then you actually use your power,
how do I know it's possible because it's already been done.
FDR did it and LBJ did it.
Lyndon Johnson and Roosevelt did that exact strategy and it worked perfectly.
Now, FDR was a good guy.
Lyndon Johnson did it for political reasons.
But of course it could work from the left, right?
>> And let me also remind you because it's an important part of the puzzle that I
think it's left out of these conversations all the time.
FDR was a good guy, generally speaking, right?
Everyone's flawed, but
he didn't just do things out of the kindness of his own heart.
He was pressured by organized labor and they were incredibly militant.
They would take to the streets.
Things would get bloody, like I don't wanna minimize like
the bloodshed that led to the pressure toward FDR to make the changes.
LBJ was a different story though.
I would like to see a good mix of both, right?
I would like to see a progressive politician who understands how to wield
power the way LBJ did.
And also someone who had the right economic policies that,
that FDR did, right?
If we had that kind of leadership, you're right.
I think that there is a possibility to break through.
But right now,
I also agree that our number one enemy isn't just the corporate media.
But the corporate media and its close relationship to corporate Democrats.
Those are our enemies.
>> Yeah, I've got to say two things there, one is back during the FDR time.
The press was completely different.
The press was much more active challenge power and
politicians 1000 times more than they do today.
And that allowed the unions to have the breathing space to actually get their
message out.
That allowed the left the breathing space to get their message out.
Now, corporate media blocks progressive message at every turn.
They have built an unbelievable oppressive machine.
Okay, now the second thing is, is there a politician like that today?
Look, I'm not doing it because she was here,
she was here because that's who she is.
Nina Turner and I used to have discussions in power hour when she was here and
she trained under former mayor of Cleveland.
And she would always tell the story of how,
when they were going to move the browns, the football team out of Cleveland.
That mayor brought in the owner of the browns who he had no leverage over.
Okay, no money, no power, no leverage.
And he said to him, look, if you, I know I can't stop you from moving the Browns.
But if you try to take the Browns name to Baltimore,
I will fight you with everything I have.
And I guarantee you there will be blood on the floor,
there'll be some of mine and some of yours but a lot more of yours.
Now, of course he was talking about politically blood not physically or
literally, right?
And and Nina Turner believes in that in terms of politics, you've got to fight.
There is value in fighting and what happened?
The Browns did go to Baltimore and
they left the name behind the mayor one you do that with carrots and sticks.
But a Democrat hasn't used a stick in my entire life time here in America,
constantly throwing around carrots and
never once actually fighting for their voters.
Finally on this story, interesting footnote here,
why didn't Mitch McConnell tell reporters this?
And then why did the reporters, if they had permission to print it, hold it for
all this time?
That would have been critical to know at the time and
could have made a difference at the time.
>> What would it make a difference with?
>> Because when McConnell then was in the conviction stage of Trump
being impeached for this.
>> During the impeachment.
>> Yeah, if the reporters had said you know that McConnell wants to end him now.
It would have created pressure on McConnell to actually vote that way
instead he hid and the reporters let him hide, I hope they sell a lot of books.
But if they had permission to print it back then and they didn't,
that was a great betrayal of their duty.
No, you're exactly right about that.
That's a really good point.
>> And to that point I just wanna read one more graphic to give you more
insight into what McConnell's mindset was.
But also the politicians he was talking to about what the strategy should be moving
forward with Trump.
What do you hear about the 25th amendment?
He asked Martin, McConnell asked Martin the journalists writing the book.
Eager for intelligence about whether the cabinet and
Vice president might remove Trump from office according to the book.
Then McConnell said, that he had spoken to Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
about issuing a joint statement telling Trump to stay away from the inauguration.
So to your point you're right.
The New York times reporters who are publishing this book should have come
out with this information earlier.
Certainly during the time when the impeachment was happening.
But where's Schumer and Pelosi?
That is some insider info.
If I were part of Democratic leadership and I was privy to these discussions,
I'm sharing the deets with the world.
>> Yeah, Anna see that's funny because I hadn't thought of that and
that's a great point.
Why would Schumer and Pelosi not share that, if they had talked to McConnell and
and they know what McConnell actually thinks of Trump.
That's because they value their relationship and friendship with
Mitch McConnell more than they value their voters and American democracy.
All of it all the huffing and puffing you hear from Democratic leadership.
It's just to send fundraising emails.
That's all they ever do.
Can you believe Trump did this?
McConnell did this give me five bucks, give me ten bucks and
I won't do a goddamn thing about it, right?
But when they actually have an opportunity to do something,
they always lay down for both McConnell and Trump.
>> It's almost like it's a big party and none of us are invited, but democrats,
Republicans, as long as they're sharing the same corporate donors,
they seem to look out for each other.
I would not have withheld that information from my constituents had I've been part of
that conversation.
>> And to my point about Mainstream media earlier,
do you think anyone in Mainstream media is going to call out Pelosi and Schumer?
Just like we just did.
It's irrefutable what we just said, right?
And but no, not a single reporter in the national media will call them out.
Calling out Nancy Pelosi is considered sacrilege in Washington.
No reporter would dare do it.
They're supposed to challenge the government.
They're supposed to challenge the politicians instead they protect them.