Chris Crucial: Mitch McConnell prepares to bend the knee

PLUS: Kenneth Chesebro in deep doo-doo

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1. They ALWAYS cave: The New York Times reported today that a detente is being negotiated between Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell.

Here’s the key bit:

Donald J. Trump and Mitch McConnell haven’t said a word to each other since December 2020.

But people close to both men are working behind the scenes to make bygones of the enmity between them and to pave the way for a critical endorsement of the former president by the one Republican congressional leader who has yet to offer one, according to three people familiar with the conversations who were not authorized to discuss the situation publicly.

Assuming it happens, Mr. McConnell’s endorsement of Mr. Trump would have enormous symbolic value to the former president, giving him the embrace of the last holdout of Republican power whose rejection of him represents the final patch of unconquered territory in Mr. Trump’s march to the party’s 2024 presidential nomination

Mark my words: This WILL happen. This doesn’t get reported if it’s NOT going to happen.

Which is, when you stop and think about it, remarkable. Because:

a) Trump has repeatedly and publicly called for McConnell to be deposed at Republican Senate Leader

b) Trump has mocked McConnell as an “old broken down crow.”

c) Trump has mocked McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who once served as his Transportation Secretary, as “Coco Chow.”

d) McConnell said, in the wake of the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.” And has said — as recently as earlier this month — that he stands by the comments.

I mean, there’s more, but that captures it. McConnell loathes Trump. He believes Trump has bastardized the Republican party and led it down a dangerous path. And yet, here we are.

The news of the softening in relations comes less than 48 hours after South Dakota Sen. John Thune, McConnell’s deputy in the Senate and the man widely expected to succeed the Kentucky Republican as leader of the party, endorsed Trump.

“The choice before the American people is crystal clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden,” Thune said. “I support former president Trump’s campaign to win the presidency, and I intend to do everything I can to see that he has a Republican majority in the Senate working with him.”

Here’s Trump on Thune in December 2020:

All good now though! (Thune won reelection easily in 2022.)

The Thune endorsement — and the reports of the work behind the scenes to get McConnell to endorse Trump — are the latest evidence, as if we needed it, that there will be no formal resistance to the former president’s nomination from within the ranks of GOP elected officials.

These people are, simply, too scared of what Trump can do to their political careers to speak out about what they really think of him. (They don’t think much of him.)

To the extent there will be a concerted resistance among conservatives and Republicans to Trump, it will come from outside Congress — not inside it.

2. Matt Rosendale, call your office: Six days after announcing his plan to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Tester this fall, Montana GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale ended his candidacy.

Now, former North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is suggesting she knows why. On a recent podcast, Heitkamp said this: “I think [the GOP] caucus may lose a member in the next couple days. Just to gossip a little bit: There’s a reason why Rosendale backed out of that Senate race — the rumor is he impregnated a 20-year-old staff person.”

She offered no backup for the allegation nor did she say how she allegedly knew it.

Rosendale’s office was quick to respond. “This is 100% false and defamatory and former Senator Heitkamp will be hearing from our lawyers soon,” said a spokesman.

Rosendale’s decision to opt out of the Senate races gives first-time candidate Tim Sheehy a free run at the Republican nod. Tester is widely considered one of the most endangered Democrats up in November due to the clear Republican lean of Montana.

Democrats are defending 23 Senate seats while Republicans have just 11 of their own seats on the ballot.

3. Kenneth Chesebro, call your office: Kenneth Chesebro, a conservative attorney, was one of the architects of Donald Trump’s attempt to install fake slates of electors in swing states — part of a broader plan to overturn the 2020 election.

As part of the investigation into the fake electors scheme, Chesebro was interviewed by Michigan authorities. During that interview, he told them he never used Twitter or had any sort of “alternate IDs".”

Whoops!

Here’s CNN today:

CNN linked Chesebro to the secret account based on numerous matching details — including biographical information regarding his work, family, travels and investments. The anonymous account, BadgerPundit, also showed a keen interest in the Electoral College process and lined up with Chesebro’s private activities at the time.

The Twitter posts reveal that even before the 2020 election, and then just two days after polls closed, Chesebro promoted a far more aggressive election subversion strategy than he later let on in his Michigan interview.

Chesebro’s lawyers confirmed to CNN that the BadgerPundit account belonged to Chesebro, describing it as his “random stream of consciousness” where he was “spitballing” theories about the election – but insisted that it was separate from his legal work for Trump’s campaign.

Uh huh. “Spitballing” on a social media site that he told investigators he never uses. Riiiight.

NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“Nikki has no interest in No Labels. She’s perfectly happy with the Republican label.” — A Haley spokesperson not totally putting to bed talk she might run for president as a 3rd party candidate. More here.

ONE GOOD CHART

President Biden is headed to the southern border later this week. And with good reason — the number of people saying that illegal immigration is “very serious problem” has soared in the last decade. These numbers — via a new Monmouth University poll — tell the story.

SONG OF THE DAY

Johnny Cash was born on this day in 1932. (He would have been 92.) I struggle to pick one song to honor Johnny but have found myself listening to a lot of “The Man Comes Around” lately.