Before then-President Donald Trump announced he wouldn't attend President Biden's inauguration, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reportedly planned to tell him he wasn't invited.
That's according to ABC reporter Jonathan Karl's new book, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show, which reveals McConnell "wanted to get a letter together from the top four congressional leaders informing Trump that he had been disinvited" from Biden's inauguration. McConnell was reportedly concerned the inauguration would be "another opportunity" for Trump "to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power" after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) reportedly wasn't on board with the plan, believing it would send an "important message of unity to have Trump attend the ceremony as Biden took the oath of office." McConnell reportedly still planned to put the letter together without McCarthy's involvement. But McCarthy, Karl reports, told the White House about McConnell's plan, and Trump subsequently announced he wouldn't attend the inauguration before the letter could be drafted. "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20," Trump announced in a Jan. 8 tweet.
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"Trump apparently wanted people to think it was his decision alone to become the first outgoing president after an election to fail to attend an inauguration since Andrew Johnson skipped the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant in 1869," Karl reports.
McConnell voted to acquit Trump for incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial but still criticized his "disgraceful" actions, saying on the Senate floor, "There's no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of [Jan. 6]. No question about it." Read more at ABC News.
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