The Daily Fuckup

On February 16, 2021, three days after the Senate acquitted Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, Trump turned his criticism toward Mitch McConnell. The former president’s statement targeted the Senate Republican leader’s judgment and leadership, reopening a fight that McConnell had already made public on the Senate floor.

McConnell voted to acquit Trump on February 13, but his floor speech that day did something else at the same time: he said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” of January 6. McConnell argued the Senate should not convict a former president, saying the constitutional question left him voting to acquit even as he condemned Trump’s conduct.

Trump’s February 16 statement did not try to smooth that over. Instead, it treated McConnell’s criticism as an attack and answered in kind. The result was a clean split in plain view: McConnell joined the acquittal tally, but he also used the same trial to pin responsibility for the Capitol attack on Trump.

That tension is now part of the Republican problem. Trump still commands a large share of the party’s voters. McConnell and other GOP leaders have to decide how much distance they can afford from him after January 6 without cutting themselves off from the base that still belongs to him.

The acquittal ended the Senate trial. It did not end the political fallout. Trump’s statement on February 16 made that clear by dragging the argument straight back into the open, with the vote over and the damage still in progress.