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“If he does, I don’t know if he can stay on as a leader,” said a senior GOP senator who said several of his colleagues held similar views and asked not to be named in discussing sensitive internal politics.
Other GOP senators were equally outspoken.
“No, no, no,” Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin and Trump ally, told CNN when asked if he could support McConnell if he votes to condemn Trump, calling such a vote of “dangerous precedent” and adding, “I don’t even think we should have a trial.”
“The crowd has been fed lies,” McConnell said on the floor Tuesday. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding from the first branch of the federal government that they didn’t like. But we did. keep on going.”
After 10 House Republicans broke ranks to join every Democrat in impeaching Trump last week for inciting an insurgency, a number of Republican senators are adopting a posture similar to McConnell’s – claiming they are truly undecided and will listen to the arguments – – a key sign that they could very well be swayed by the position the GOP leader ultimately takes.
McConnell, who has aligned himself with Trump’s agenda for the past four years and was responsible for helping him reshape the federal justice system and the Supreme Court, has had little interaction with Trump in recent weeks after the The former president has become increasingly isolated by his efforts to turn the situation around. the elections.
Republicans who know McConnell well believe he will take the temperature of the GOP Senate conference and ultimately make a decision based in part on the views of his colleagues and the mood of the country when voting.
And some Trump loyalists say if McConnell and at least 16 of his GOP colleagues join with 50 Democrats in condemning the former president, they will see a major backlash from the party’s base that will thwart their hopes of winning back the Senate majority. next year.
“What’s the use of impeaching a guy in Florida?” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a friend of Trump who spoke at length with the former president the day before Biden’s inauguration. “I think if any type of Republican leader who embraces that is doing the party a lot of harm.”
Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, argued that the GOP needs Trump on his side to be successful next year.
“For the party to move forward, we have to move the party with Donald Trump,” Graham said in an interview. “There’s no way you can have a Republican Party without President Trump working with all of us and we all working with him. It’s just a fact. And I think we have a decent chance of coming back in 2022. But we can’t do it without the president. ”
Not everyone agrees – and some Republicans are making it clear that they are prepared to ban Trump from running again after convicting him at trial.
“Such illegal actions cannot be without consequence,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said of Trump’s actions.
McConnell’s office declined to comment. But the GOP leader’s closest allies insist it is unclear where he is going.
Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn, a member of the GOP leadership team, said he did not believe McConnell had made a decision on how he would vote on conviction.
“He said several times during my hearing that he really hadn’t made up his mind and would wait and see what was presented,” Cornyn said of the GOP leader.
Senator Mitt Romney, the Republican from Utah who was the only GOP senator to vote to condemn Trump in 2020, said McConnell had told his colleagues: “You should vote your conscience,” adding that the leader of the GOP “has by no means tried to pressure people to take one direction or another.
“We are being asked to apply impartial justice,” Romney said. “We are not being asked to apply impartial justice unless it hurts your party. And so my responsibility and I believe each of us is to do what we swear to do. And the consequences of that are difficult. predictable.”
Other Republicans are laying firmer ground – including Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas who led the failed effort to undo Biden’s election victory in Arizona on January 6.
“I don’t think we should be focusing on political retribution for Democrats,” said Cruz, when asked whether McConnell kept the option of condemning Trump.
Freshman Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama who, like Cruz, voted to overturn Biden’s victories in Arizona and Pennsylvania after the riot, argued that the GOP must remain united during the trial.
“I am not for the trial,” Tuberville said. “Are you going to remove a guy who isn’t even in town anymore?”
Asked what it would mean for the party if Republicans joined Democrats in condemning Trump, Tuberville said, “It wouldn’t be good. It’s all about a team, and if you start breaking up the team, it tears them apart. “
While many GOP senators are undecided, it is clear that McConnell’s vote remains the most influential.
Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, said many Republican senators see McConnell as “definitely iconic, I mean the guy is a Senate legend and rightly so.”
But he reckoned that McConnell’s vote would have a big impact on the party’s electoral prospects.
“The party will not be defined by its single vote,” Cramer said. “In the states, people are going to judge by the vote of their senator. Not the way the Kentucky senator votes.
CNN’s Ali Zaslav and Lauren Koenig contributed to this report.
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