McConnell will attend meeting with Trump this week

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters Tuesday he will attend a meeting with former President Trump and the Senate GOP conference that will be hosted at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) later this week.

McConnell told reporters for CNN and NBC News on Tuesday that he plans to attend the meeting despite his long-running feud with Trump, who had repeatedly called on GOP senators to oust McConnell as their leader.

It will be the first time the two leaders will meet in person since 2020.

Trump and McConnell haven’t spoken to each other since December 2020, when they had a falling out over Trump’s plan to contest President Biden’s victory in that year’s election.

McConnell recognized Biden as the president-elect on Dec. 15, 2020, after he won the Electoral College vote.

He made a step toward rapprochement with Trump in March when he endorsed him for the presidency.

“It is abundantly clear that former President Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” McConnell said in the statement after Trump clinched the nomination on Super Tuesday.

McConnell has made it a practice not to comment about Trump or his myriad legal problems, frequently telling reporters he has decided to stay out of this year’s presidential politics.

The Senate GOP leader, however, offered Trump support after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

“These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal,” McConnell wrote in a post on the social platform X, criticizing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.