- McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao did not know how to deal with Trump after the 2020 election.
- "Every day the leader and I wake up saying, 'How do we manage the president?'" Chao told a friend in December 2020.
- The comments were reported in a forthcoming book by two New York Times reporters.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao, President Donald Trump's transportation secretary, no longer knew how to deal with the president, according to a forthcoming book.
"Every day the leader and I wake up saying, 'How do we manage the president?'" Chao told a friend in December 2020, per the book. CNN reported on Wednesday on details from the book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
McConnell publicly recognized President Joe Biden's victory on December 15, 2020, after the Electoral College made his win official. Up until then, the Kentucky Republican avoided weighing in on the election results and Trump's false claims about widespread voter fraud. McConnell's acknowledgement of the election results infuriated Trump, and the two haven't spoken to each other since.
Chao, for her part, resigned from her cabinet position the day after the January 6 Capitol riot — one of the many high-profile Trump officials who left their posts at the time. Chao had served as transportation secretary since the beginning of the Trump administration.
"Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed," she had said in a statement. "As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."
McConnell also forcefully condemned Trump after the riot, for which he said the president was "practically and morally responsible," but voted to acquit him in his second impeachment trial on a charge of "incitement of insurrection."
The forthcoming book further details McConnell's thinking in the weeks after the election. At the time, McConnell remained focused on the upcoming Georgia runoff elections in January 2021 that would determine which party controls the Senate.
Trump had pushed for then-Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Georgia Republicans vying to hold on to their seats, to amplify his claims that the 2020 election was rigged. According to the book, McConnell did not dismiss Trump's claims because he was worried about potentially angering the president and losing the Georgia elections.
But privately, McConnell slammed Trump's comments.
"What it looks to me like he's doing is setting this up so he can blame the governor and the secretary of state if we lose," McConnell said, per CNN's excerpt. "He's always setting up somebody to blame it on."
The book, titled "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," is set for release on May 3. Spokespeople for McConnell and Chao did not immediately return Insider's requests for comment.