Former President Donald Trump on Monday angrily dismissed a claim that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, tried to have Trump disinvited from Joe Biden's presidential inauguration.
In a statement posted to his website, Trump declared he "would never have agreed to go."
"This decision was mine, and mine alone," he said. "The old broken-down crow, Mitch McConnell, had nothing to do with it."
In his new book, "Betrayal," ABC News' chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl writes that McConnell felt he could not give Trump another opportunity to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, Politico reported.
McConnell wanted to have congressional leaders write a letter to Trump informing him he’d been disinvited, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., opposed the idea, Karl wrote, "arguing it would be an important message of unity" to have Trump attend, Politico reported.
Karl also wrote that after a top adviser to McConnell told Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the Kentucky senator's plan, Trump preemptively put out a tweet announcing he wouldn’t attend, Politico reported.
"According to third-rate reporter Jonathan Karl of ABC Fake News, McConnell unsuccessfully tried getting a letter signed by others for me not to go," Trump wrote in his statement.
"This was nothing I ever heard of, and actually, if he ever did get it signed, I probably would have held my nose and gone. The Election was rigged, the facts are clear, and Mitch McConnell did nothing. He was probably too busy working on deals with China for his wife and family!"
Politico noted that McConnell and Trump have clashed before, but with Republicans hopeful about regaining power in the midterms and Trump likely to run again, the deepening discord could be a problem.
Karl’s book comes out Tuesday.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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