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County GOP chairman in Kentucky calls on McConnell to resign from leadership over remarks on Trump’s responsibility for Jan. 6 attack
By Felicia Sonmez and Michael Scherer
A county Republican Party chairman in Kentucky is calling on Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to step down from his position as Senate minority leader over his statement that former president Donald Trump bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Don Thrasher, chairman of the Nelson County Republican Party, said in a statement Tuesday that McConnell’s leadership in the Senate “does not represent the Republican voters that put our faith in you in the last primary election.”
McConnell on Saturday voted to acquit Trump of the charge of incitement of insurrection. In a floor speech after the vote, he said “there’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” but it was beyond the scope of the Senate’s authority to try a former president.
Trump responded to McConnell in a statement Tuesday in which he called the Kentucky Republican “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack” and mused that “if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”
McConnell won his 2020 reelection race, while Trump lost the White House.
Thrasher referenced Trump’s Tuesday denunciation of McConnell, noting he was “in receipt” of the former president’s publicly released statement.
“Given that the county party that I represent supports President Trump overwhelmingly and your complete and total disdain for the will of your constituents here in Nelson County I am formally demanding you immediately resign your leadership position within our party’s caucus in the United States Senate,” Thrasher said.
A McConnell spokesman declined to comment.
In an interview Tuesday, Thrasher told The Washington Post that even though McConnell voted to acquit Trump, he “stirred up the hornets’ nest even worse” with his floor speech.
“There are people that are more mad now, because it just seems kind of duplicitous to a lot of people,” Thrasher said. “He is trying to straddle the fence and he is not making anybody happy doing that.”
Thrasher also said he has heard that other county committees in Kentucky will pursue censure resolutions against McConnell, and that five counties, including his own, had already passed motions condemning McConnell for his criticism of Trump since the Jan. 6 attack.
