The Memo: McConnell gets swept away by rising Trump tide

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : McConnell and Trump, temperamental opposites, had tolerated a political marriage of convenience during most of the latter's White House tenure.
57% : As for Trump, he is, of course, virtually assured of winning this year's GOP nomination, having racked up double-digit victories in every primary contest so far.
54% : But the underlying reality, the source added, was that "Mitch McConnell knew that Donald Trump is likely to be the next president of the United States and so he decided to go at a time of his own choosing.
50% : An Economist/YouGov poll released Wednesday, before McConnell's decision became public, found 85 percent of Republicans view Trump favorably and 14 percent unfavorably.
49% : "Even former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley -- the last surviving rival to Trump for the GOP nomination and the kind of Republican who would once have been expected to fall in lockstep with McConnell -- offered only a lukewarm tribute.
46% : "There's no question -- none -- that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.
44% : But McConnell's decision to recognize Biden as the victorious president-elect in December 2020 infuriated Trump.
41% : If Trump were to win in November, he would almost certainly engineer McConnell's ouster -- an inglorious end to such a long career.
35% : The same rationale that was cast aside roughly four years later when Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett less than two months before the 2020 election.
33% : Haley said that McConnell "did many good things but he is right that we do need a new generation."As of late Wednesday afternoon, there was no comment from Trump.
31% : Still, the tenor of the speech itself showed McConnell had calculated there was no way back for Trump after Jan. 6.
31% : It became clear soon enough that the party had no intention of disavowing Trump.
30% : The venom with which Trump attacked him was unignorable.
27% : His words came as he voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment proceedings that had followed the riot.
14% : One source briefed on those talks told this column that the basic outline would have McConnell endorsing Trump as the party's de facto leader in return for a quietening of Trump's attacks.

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