The price of power

For months after the January 6, 2021, rampage at the Capitol, the damaged window of Mitch McConnell's office was left unrepaired, a graphic reminder of the moment when one of rioters bashed the fortified glass with a flagpole.

- JENNIFER SZALAI

McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who was the Senate majority leader at the time, professed his disgust at what happened, calling it "further evidence of Donald Trump's complete unfitness for office."

According to The Price of Power, a new biography by Michael Tackett, McConnell already despised Trump, calling him "not very smart, irascible, nasty" and a "despicable human being." But a month later, when presented with the opportunity to convict Trump at his second impeachment trial for what McConnell declared to be "as close to an impeachable offense as you can imagine," he refused to take it. A conviction could have disqualified Trump from holding office again, but McConnell wasn't ready to cast Trump into the political wilderness, at least not yet.

Nearly four years on, he still isn't ready. McConnell says he will support Trump, whom he deems a "sleazeball," in the 2024 election. As Tackett puts it, "He had no choice but to support the nominee."

"No choice": The phrase implies an unwavering sense of duty and commitment, when in fact it is more useful in revealing what McConnell's actual priorities are. He seems to have decided that Trump is reprehensible, wholly unfit for office and even a menace to the Republic. "I just hope that he'll have to pay a price for it," he told Tackett, referring to Trump's efforts to try to overturn the 2020 election.