In a biography set to publish a week before the election, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell backed special counsel Jack Smith and said he hopes former President Trump will "pay a price" for his role in Jan. 6th.
Why it matters: McConnell has long been a Trump critic, but a new book throws his weight behind some of the most serious federal charges against Trump.
-"If he hasn't committed indictable offenses, I don't know what one is," the longest-serving Republican leader told journalist Michael Tackett in an interview for "The Price of Power," weeks after Smith brought the charges against Trump in August 2023.
-"From the start, McConnell thought the charges brought by federal prosecutors against Trump had merit," Tackett writes.
-McConnell told him "there's no doubt who inspired it, and I just hope that he'll have to pay a price for it," referencing Jan. 6.