In 'The Price of Power,' McConnell Says Trump's MAGA Movement Is 'Totally Wrong'

For years, Republican leader Mitch McConnell's antipathy toward former President Donald Trump has been characterized by calculated reticence, but in a new biography of McConnell due out next week, McConnell is unquestionably critical of the former president, calling Trump at various points “” stupid,” “ill-tempered,” a “narcissist,” and a “despicable human being.”

With less than two weeks until Election Day when Trump could return to the White House, McConnell, who has served as his party's leader in the Senate for a record 17 years, says Trump's MAGA movement has “caused a lot of damage.” “ to the Republican Party and transformed it into something that former President Ronald Reagan “wouldn’t recognize.”

ABC News has obtained an advance copy of the book “The Price of Power” by Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press. The book provides a detailed account of McConnell's life, beginning with his early bout with polio and ending with his impending departure from leadership after the upcoming election. His departure from his position at the head of his conference is marked by his break with Trump and the direction in which he took the party.

“I know I can't influence the broader Republican Party, but I have influence here and I'm going to use it because I think that's important for the country and I think that the MAGA movement is completely wrong ” says McConnell in the book.

“The Price of Power” details McConnell’s increasing dissatisfaction with Trump in the run-up to the 2020 election and in the days that followed.

After the election, McConnell said, “It's not just the Democrats who are counting down the days” until Trump leaves office, and that Trump's efforts to make baseless election challenges and claim a rigged election are “just the good judgment of the American people.” underline”. I just had enough of the misrepresentations, the outright lies almost daily, and they fired him.

Nevertheless, Trump goes into November 5th with support from McConnell.

“Whatever I have said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him, but we are all on the same team now,” McConnell said in a statement to ABC News.

“Detached from reality”

McConnell called Trump's behavior after the 2020 election “disconnected from reality.”

“His behavior after the election became increasingly detached from reality,” McConnell says in the book, “and it seems to me that he invented this alternative universe of events.”

The book details McConnell's day on January 6, 2021, including the speech he gave on the Senate floor urging senators not to oppose the electoral count just before the chamber was evacuated.

McConnell said he believes what Trump did on Jan. 6 was an “impeachable offense.”

“I am not at all clear whether what the president did is an impeachable offense. I think that's it. Calling for an insurrection and having people attack the Capitol as a direct result… is as close to a criminal offense as you can get.” Imagine, with the possible exception of perhaps being an agent for another country.

On February 13, 2021, McConnell gave a speech blaming Trump for the insurrection.

“They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man in the world because he was angry. He lost an election. Former President Trump's actions preceded the insurrection and were a disgraceful dereliction of duty. “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said that day.

Still, McConnell would ultimately vote against impeachment. And later, after the Republican Party selected Trump as its candidate in 2024, he also endorsed him.

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A political calculation

It was a political calculation that McConnell made that distinguished him from some of Trump's most vocal opponents, such as Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost her primary largely because she dared to challenge Trump.

“The difference between me and Liz is that I didn't realize that blowing herself up and removing herself from the field was helpful in getting the party back to where she and I probably both think that she should be,” McConnell told Tackett, later adding “I think her brand of self-sacrifice may sell books, but it won't have any impact on changing the party. We had different opinions on that.”

Even before the 2020 election, McConnell's relationship with Trump was difficult.

As Trump became more widely known as a possible nominee in 2016, McConnell described him as “that most unusual candidate.”

“What I tried to do, as I had candidates in different states who dealt with the Trump factor differently, was to keep my mouth shut because I didn't want to become an issue in a particular Senate race,” McConnell briefly told his oral historian after the election, the book says.

The book details the behind-the-scenes relationship between McConnell and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said they “took turns” talking to Trump. Ryan described Trump as an “amoral narcissist” in the book.

“Every day, every week, every month, we were more surprised at how crazy he was, how unpredictable he was, how strange he was,” Ryan says in the book. “He shot the messengers, and Mitch and I were always the messengers. We always had to explain to him the practical limits of government. He never liked hearing that.”

McConnell criticized a number of Trump's actions, including his decision to interfere in the 2017 Alabama special election, in which Republican Roy Moore was defeated by Democrat Doug Jones.

“I recommended that Trump stay out of this,” McConnell said. Instead, “Trump was in the middle of trying to get Moore elected, and amazingly, Alabama elected a Democrat to the Senate.” McConnell said, “I'm glad the Democrat won.”

He said Trump's decision to fire then-FBI Director James Comey was another misstep.

“His own actions have put him in danger and I'm sure his lawyers are probably going crazy because he won't keep his mouth shut. “It’s completely uncontrollable,” McConnell said.

Despite all this, McConnell still appeared at a rally with Trump in Kentucky ahead of the 2020 election. He thanked him for “making America great again.”

This speech focused primarily on the influence that Trump and McConnell together had in influencing the federal courts.