Senate Minerals leader Mitch McConnell also said he would support Donald Trump if the former president won the 2024 GOP presidency, saying it was "obligatory" to support the party's nominee.
McConnell reiterated his position on Trump's nomination - which he disclosed for the first time earlier last year - in an interview with Axios journalist Jonathan Swan this week.
"Help me understand this. I watched your speech last February in the Senate floor after the second vote of Donald Trump. And it was a strange speech," Swan said, referring to February 13, 2021, a speech from McConnell.
"He spoke very strongly against the most powerful man in the party, the president. He also said that Donald Trump's actions that preceded the January 6 uprising were a quote - a disgraceful job and that he was responsible for his conduct, words, and annoyance. How can you say that and go two weeks later and say you will fully support Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee in 2024? "
McConnell responded that it should not be a "first page headline" that he, as the leader of the Senate GOP, would support a Republican nominee.
"I think I have a responsibility to support my party's nominee," McConnell said. "That would mean that whoever is nominated has already gone out and won the nomination."
"Not at all compatible," he added. "I stand by everything I said on January 6 and everything on February 13."
"I cannot nominate a candidate for the Republic as president. They are elected by the voters of the Republic across the country," he said.
Swan said Rep. Liz Cheney appears to have shared McConnell's view of Trump's January 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol but argued that, unlike McConnell, Cheney thought "there are more important issues than party loyalty."
"I'm actually trying to understand. Is there a limit?" Swan presses.
"You know, I say a lot of things that I'm sure people don't understand," McConnell said.
McConnell's continued acceptance of Trump's 2024 nomination comes months after Trump scolded, criticized and ridiculed him.
In November, Trump attacked McConnell several times. That month, the former president criticized McConnell for supporting President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill, calling it "RINO," an acronym for Republican In Name Only. He also gave McConnell the moniker "Old Crow" and accused him of "risking" the chances of re-election for other Republican members.
In January, he called McConnell "stupid" in defending GOP Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who disputed Trump's allegations of voter fraud.
And in February, Trump said McConnell did not speak for the Republican Party or "the majority of its voters." That same month, Trump again asked Sen. Rick Scott to challenge McConnell to Senate GOP leader, adding to the long-running feud between the two. This was after McConnell appeared to dismiss rumors that Trump might try to oust him as Senate leader if the GOP were to take a committee on condition of anonymity.
McConnell also broke up with Trump in public. In February, he said he would not allow any sentence to be imposed on the rebels on January 6 after Trump revealed that he could apologize to the people for the January 6-related offenses. he called them "goofballs," who did not win their primaries in the Senate.