Mitch McConnell believed Trump didn't actually think he lost the election: report

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn't take President Donald Trump's threats seriously when he insisted the election was stolen from him.

The New York Times reported that McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, thought Trump was "only blustering" when he repeatedly claimed the election results were fraudulent and had been assured by senior White House officials that the president would eventually concede.

Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, and Josh Holmes, McConnell's top political adviser, had spoken with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, who said Trump and his lawyers would pursue all legal options but realized those efforts would likely fail and Trump would eventually accept that he had lost.

However, the president went on to encourage supporters to attend a Jan. 6 protest as Congress certified Joe Biden's election win, and he urged them to march on the Capitol -- which they did, sparking a violent insurrection that left five dead that day.

Trump was then impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives for those efforts and faces a Senate trial.