On Thursday night, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who has declined to comment on the presidential contest or his long-running conflict with former President Trump in the past, decided to defend him in a move that surprised many observers.
McConnell proclaimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) should never have brought the case and predicted that the conviction would be overturned hours after the jury rendered its guilty verdict.
“These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal,” McConnell announced on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter).
McConnell’s unexpected decision to comment on the outcome of a court case that he has declined to discuss for months may suggest that Trump’s conviction could have a unifying impact on the GOP, rallying even his staunchest skeptics to his defense.
The Senate GOP leader was conspicuously silent in April of last year, when Trump entered a plea of not guilty to the 34 felony counts brought by Bragg.
Nevertheless, he has encountered difficulty in uniting the party, as a substantial number of GOP primary voters in Indiana and other states have opted to vote for Nikki Haley, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, despite her withdrawal from the presidential campaign in March.
