By LISA MASCARO (AP Congressional Correspondent)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leader Mitch McConnell is the highest-ranking Republican in Congress who has yet to endorse Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House — having once called the defeated president “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
But that’s potentially about to change.
McConnell’s political team and Trump’s campaign have been in talks over not only a possible endorsement of the former president but a strategy to unite Republicans up and down the party’s ticket ahead of the November election, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
How, when or where McConnell would endorse Trump is less head-spinning than the idea that it could happen at all: A stunning rapprochement for two men who have not spoken since McConnell enraged Trump by declaring Joe Biden the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.
But a fast-moving series of events ahead of Super Tuesday’s elections have been set in motion by McConnell’s own sudden announcement he would step down as leader next session and as Trump is on track to move closer toward the GOP nomination.
Taken together, it lays bare the lengths that McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader and an ever calculating politician, will go as he works to win back Republican control of the Senate in what could be among his final acts in power.
“I still have enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint my critics, and I intend to do so with all the enthusiasm which they have become accustomed,” McConnell said last week in announcing his decision to step aside as leader for the next session.
Not long ago, it appeared Trump would have few fans politically lining up behind his bid to return to the White House, particularly from the halls of Congress.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, key Republicans, including McConnell, signaled…
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