Senate

McConnell: Trump lynching comment ‘an unfortunate choice of words’

by Jordain Carney - 10/22/19 2:53 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) distanced himself on Tuesday from President Trump’s comparison of the impeachment inquiry to a lynching.

“Given the history in our country I would not compare this to a lynching,” McConnell told reporters. “That was an unfortunate choice of words.”

{mosads}He added that the House impeachment inquiry is “an unfair process, and a better way to characterize it would be to call it an unfair process.”

Trump sparked a political backlash when he made the comparison in a tweet on Tuesday morning.

“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” Trump tweeted. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here — a lynching. But we will WIN!”

Democrats are wading deeper into an impeachment inquiry focused on Trump asking Ukraine to investigate the former Vice President Joe Biden — a top 2020 rival of Trump’s — and his son Hunter Biden, and whether the administration held up aid in an effort to pressure the country.

McConnell, who declined to comment on Trump’s tweet earlier Tuesday, is the latest GOP lawmaker to distance themselves from the president’s rhetoric.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), McConnell’s No. 2, called it “inappropriate,” while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Tuesday, “I don’t agree with that language.”