Top senator Mitch McConnell endorses Trump for president despite acrimony

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the US Senate, endorsed Donald Trump for president despite years of acrimony including Trump calling McConnell a “piece of shit” and attacking his wife in racist terms, and McConnell deeming Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the January 6 insurrection.

Related: Mitch McConnell to step down as Republican leader in US Senate

“It is abundantly clear that Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for president of the United States,” McConnell, 82, told the Washington Post on Wednesday, after Trump dominated the Super Tuesday primaries and his last rival, Nikki Haley, dropped out.

“It should come as no surprise,” McConnell said, “that as nominee, [Trump] will have my support. During his presidency, we worked together to accomplish great things for the American people including tax reform that supercharged our economy and a generational change of our federal judiciary – most importantly, the supreme court.”

In the words of the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the 2017 tax law McConnell referred to was “skewed to the rich, expensive, and failed to deliver … promised economic benefits”.

In the case of the courts, McConnell did stock the federal bench with rightwingers and steer three justices onto the supreme court, appointments made possible by ruthless tactics and paving the way for policy victories including the removal of the federal right to abortion.

That ruling, however, has powered Democrats to victories in campaigns centered on rightwing threats to reproductive rights.

McConnell and Trump ultimately fell out over Trump’s refusal to admit defeat by Joe Biden in 2020, culminating in the deadly attack on Congress of 6 January 2021 – the event which prompted McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, to resign as Trump’s transportation secretary.

McConnell voted to acquit Trump at his subsequent (and second) impeachment trial, claiming that as Trump had left office the sanction was not needed.

But though McConnell excoriated Trump in a Senate speech, labeling him guilty of a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and “practically and morally responsible for provoking” January 6, the former president did not leave the national scene as McConnell clearly expected.

As Trump dominated the Republican primary, notwithstanding 91 criminal charges under four indictments, multimillion-dollar civil penalties and attempts to remove him from the ballot, his relationship with McConnell went into deep freeze.

Trump’s “piece of shit” remark was reported. Other insults thrown McConnell’s way included “stone cold loser”, “dumb son of a bitch” and “old broken down crow”.

Trump called Chao “Coco Chow” and McConnell’s “China-loving wife”. Last year, Chao spoke out against such racist mockery.

Last week, amid speculation that McConnell would soon endorse, the Kentucky senator said he would step down as leader at the end of this year, after elections in which Republicans hope to regain Senate control.

A senator since 1985, McConnell is the longest-serving Senate party leader, having assumed his role in 2006. Contenders to replace him include John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota. Both have endorsed Trump. On Wednesday, Joni Ernst of Iowa also endorsed, giving Trump a full house of GOP Senate leaders.

McConnell is destined to be remembered as a hugely influential figure. But his decision to endorse Trump met with widespread scorn.

Norman Ornstein, an author and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said McConnell had “once again demonstrate[d] a level of moral cowardice that is destructive and pathetic.

“He was responsible for letting Trump off the hook, and having him as the Republican nominee, when he deep-sixed [the] impeachment trial. Now he endorses the vicious autocrat. Shame”.