Why did Mitch McConnell vote to acquit Trump after January 6, according to Jacob Weisberg?

Jacob Weisberg told Kara Swisher that Mitch McConnell privately called January 6 an impeachable offense and planned to vote to convict. Instead he argued Trump could not be convicted after leaving office, which Weisberg calls a pretext. Weisberg believes McConnell feared losing his place as Republican leader once members found the party belonged to Trump, and that a climate of threats of violence also weighed on senators.

• Seven Senate Republicans voted to convict and the Senate was 10 votes short, numbers Weisberg says McConnell was positioned to deliver.
• Weisberg cites Mitt Romney telling McKay Coppins that Trump would have been convicted if every senator had Romney's private security.

▸In their words

“McConnell, more than any other single person, could have prevented Trump, too” Jacob Weisberg · at 15:10 — open in the transcript →

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on On with Kara Swisher (2026-11-02). Read the whole episode summary →

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