After stepping down from his Senate leadership position, Sen. Mitch McConnell is already back to attacking President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
During a \u201c60 Minutes\u201d interview with anchor Leslie Stahl, the Kentucky Republican attacked\u00a0Trump for pardoning the Capitol rioters while revealing he has not spoken with the president for \u201cquite a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump pardoned nearly 1,500 people currently imprisoned for rioting at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, just hours after being inaugurated on Jan. 20.<\/p>\n
Below is a transcript of the exchange:<\/p>\n
STAHL: \u201cHow would you describe your relationship with President Trump?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cWell, we haven\u2019t spoken for quite a while. I was very upset about what happened January 6.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cYou had to be evacuated from the Senate, along with other leaders. Your staff was in your office. The rioters were banging on your door. Someone with a flagpole broke a window into your office.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cWell, my staff in the Capitol was putting furniture up against the doors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cTo prevent them from \u2014 \u201c<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cTo prevent the rioters from outside from breaking the doors and getting at them. And what was it about? To try to prevent the orderly transfer of government, which has never happened in our country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cYour staff, after the crisis was over, you went and spoke with them. It was a highly emotional situation. You remember?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cOh, I remember well.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cDo you remember what you told them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cThat \u2014 yeah, I remember what I told them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL (voice-over): \u201cThat emotion turned to fury.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cPresident Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cThat\u2019s the way I still feel about it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cWhat are your views on President Trump and his supporters trying to change what happened on <\/em><\/p>\n January 6? They\u2019re calling it a \u2018day of love.\u2019 They called the rioters \u2018martyrs.\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cYeah. No, it \u2014 it was an insurrection.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n STAHL: \u201cWhat about the pardons for the people who stormed the Capitol that day?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n McConnell: \u201cI think pardoning the people who\u2019ve been convicted is a mistake.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n WATCH:<\/p>\n McConnell came under fire last month when he voted against Pete Hegseth, who went on to be confirmed as the Secretary of Defense.<\/p>\n Republicans on X were furious with the 82-year-old senator, and they let him know about it.<\/p>\n \u201cWTF? Mitch McConnell immediately walked over and CELEBRATED with the Democrats after voting against Hegseth This man HAS TO GO in 2026. The people of Kentucky voted for Trump\u2019s mandate\u2014not this anti-Trump BS,\u201d conservative commentator Nick Sortor said<\/a> with a video showing the interaction.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter voting against Pete Hegseth, Mitch McConnell went to the left side of the aisle to hang out with Democrats,\u201d Tim Young said<\/a> in the caption of a photo.<\/p>\n \u201cMitch McConnell just voted NO on President Trump\u2019s secretary of defense nominee This led to VP Vance having to rush down to cast a tie-breaking vote, only the 2nd such vote in U.S. history As Republican Senators gather around to congratulate Vance, notice McConnell walk over and SHAKE HANDS with the Democrats. If you thought RFK Jr and Tulsi was going to be easy\u2014think again. The GOP Establishment isn\u2019t going down without a fight. Get ready,\u201d another X user said<\/a>, offering a prediction for some of President Donald Trump\u2019s more controversial nominees.<\/p>\n \u201cMitch McConnell is the Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Sub Committee. Majority Leader, John Thune should remove him from that committee,\u201d another said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMitch McConnell should be censured, primaried, voted out of office, and ostracized from the Republican Party. There is no place for deep state RINOs in President Trump\u2019s GOP,\u201d Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of ACT for America, said<\/a>.<\/p>\n A reporter asked Trump what he thought about McConnell\u2019s \u201cno\u201d vote, but he said he didn\u2019t know how McConnell had voted until just then. \u201cWinning is what matters, right?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n