McConnell's attempts to defend Trump blowing up in his face as GOP senators begin to revolt

In a column for the Daily Beast, longtime political observer Margaret Carlson stated the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), may have blundered by admitting he will undercut the impeachment trial of Donald Trump -- and that it is now blowing up in his face.

Referring to a Christmas Eve interview with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) where she expressed dismay at McConnell's previous comments on Fox News, Carlson claimed the top Republican in the Senate may have opened the door for others like the Alaska senator to make McConnell's plan to rush through a trial without witnesses problematic.

"The first crack in Donald Trump’s red wall came on Christmas Eve when not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, except for Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who said she was 'disturbed' by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise of 'total coordination' with Donald Trump in his impeachment trial in the Senate. 'It’s wrong to pre-judge,' she said of McConnell working 'hand-in-glove' with Trump, Carlson wrote. "Murkowski wouldn’t have gone so far as to be 'disturbed' had McConnell not committed one of the few mistakes of his political life in no longer simply doing everything Trump tells him to do but doing it the way Trump tells him to."

According to the columnist, McConnell's resulting performance on Fox News is now coming back to haunt the Senate majority leader -- and Trump.

"When defending Trump, it must be done loudly and immediately," she suggested. "He keeps score. Trump is driven so mad by impeachment—he claimed not to have been impeached in one of the hundreds of unhinged tweets he’s issued since the two articles were passed in the House—that he not only needed to be assured of acquittal, he had to have it blasted out prematurely to buy him a night or two when Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t disturb his dreams."

"If only McConnell hadn’t blurted out his plans, he could have done everything he said he would with impunity," she claimed. "Now, with Murkowski questioning McConnell throwing his lot in with Trump, he’s lost the first post-impeachment round to the House Speaker. At worst, by holding on to the articles of impeachment, Pelosi chose a slow death over a quick one in the craven Senate. At best, she may get a fairer, if not a fair, trial, a witness or two that if she had waited—and waited—for court rulings to compel their testimony that would have been met with cries of outrage for daring to continue hearings in the midst of an election."

"Pelosi has also exposed that when McConnell swears an oath to be impartial at the opening of the trial, in the sight of his Baptist God and Chief Justice Roberts, he’s either had an unbelievable change of heart, like Saul on the road to Damascus, or he’s perjuring himself," Carlson concluded.

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