For years, Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s distaste for former President Donald Trump has been characterized by calculated restraint, but in a new biography of McConnell to be published next week, McConnell criticizes the former president in terms insecure, at various times calling Trump “stupid,” “tempered,” a “narcissist” and a “despicable human being.”

Less than two weeks until the year Choice On the day Trump could return him to the White House, McConnell, who has been his party’s Senate leader for a record 17 years, says Trump’s MAGA movement has “done a lot of harm” to the Republican Party and transformed it. in something that former President Ronald Reagan “wouldn’t recognize.”

ABC News obtained an advance copy of The Price of Power from Associated Press Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett. The book provides a thorough treatment of McConnell’s life, beginning with his early bouts with polio and ending with looming departure from the leadership after the upcoming elections. His exit from his position at the top of his conference is colored by his break with Trump and the direction the party has taken.

“I know I can’t influence the Republican Party broadly, but I have influence here and I’m going to use it because I think this is important for the country and I think the MAGA movement is completely wrong,” McConnell says. in the book.

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“The Price of Power” details McConnell’s growing disaffection with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and in the days since.

After the election, McConnell said, “It’s not just Democrats counting the days” until Trump is out of office, and that his efforts to mount baseless election challenges and claim fraudulent elections “only underscore the good judgment of the American people. We had enough false statements, outright lies almost on a daily basis, and they fired him.”

Still, Trump heads into Nov. 5 with a McConnell’s endorsement.

“Anything I’ve said about President Trump pales in comparison to what JD Vance, Lindsey Graham and others have said about him, but now we’re all on the same team,” McConnell said in a statement to ABC News.

“Detached from reality”

McConnell called Trump’s behavior after the 2020 election “detached from reality.”

“His post-election behavior has been increasingly detached from reality,” McConnell says in the book, “and it seems to me he’s put together this alternate universe of how things happened.”

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The book details McConnell’s day on Jan. 6, 2021, including his speech on the Senate floor, urging senators not to oppose the election count even before the chamber was evacuated.

McConnell said he believed what Trump did on Jan. 6 was an “accusative offensive.”

“I’m not conflicted at all if what the president did is an impeachable offense. I think it is. Inciting an insurrection and people attacking the Capitol as a direct result… is about as close to an indictable offense as you can get. imagine, with the possible exception of maybe being an agent for another country.”

On February 13, 2021, McConnell gave a speech in which he blamed Trump for the insurrection.

“They did this because they were fed wild lies by the most powerful man on Earth, because he was angry. He lost the election. Former President Trump’s actions preceded the riot in a shameful dereliction of duty … There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for causing the events of the day, without a doubt,” he said that day.

McConnell would ultimately vote against the impeachment, however. And later, after the Republican party chose Trump as its nominee in 2024, he also endorsed him.

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A political calculation

It was a political calculation by McConnell that set him apart from some of Trump’s more vocal opponents, such as Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost her primary in large part because she dared to challenge Trump.

“Where I was at odds with Liz is that I didn’t see how blowing yourself up and taking yourself off the playing field was helpful in getting the party back to where she and I probably thought it would should be,” McConnell told Tackett, adding later. , “I think her kind of sacrificial action can sell cards, but it won’t have an impact in changing the party. This is where we differentiated ourselves.”

Even before the 2020 election, McConnell’s relationship with Trump was a rocky one.

As Trump began to rise to prominence as a possible 2016 nominee, McConnell described him as “the most unusual nominee.”

“What I tried to do, because we had candidates in different states that deal with the Trump factor differently, was to keep my mouth shut, because I didn’t want to become an issue in a particular Senate race,” McConnell told his oral history. shortly after the election, according to the book.

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The book details the behind-the-scenes relationship between McConnell and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said they “took turns” with Trump. Ryan described Trump in the book as an “amoral narcissist.”

“We were more surprised every day, every week, every month, how wild he was, how erratic he was, how strange he was,” Ryan says in the book. “He would shoot the messengers, and Mitch and I were always the messengers. We should always explain to him the practical limitations of government. He never liked to hear that.”

McConnell has criticized a number of Trump’s moves, including his decision to meddle in Alabama’s 2017 special election, which saw Republican Roy Moore. defeated by Democrat Doug Jones.

“I advised Trump not to do that,” McConnell said. Instead, “Trump got right in the middle of it and tried to elect Moore, and amazingly, Alabama elected a Democrat to the Senate.” McConnell said, “I’m glad the Democrat won.”

He said Trump’s decision to fire then-FBI director James Comey was another misstep.

“His own actions have put him in danger, and I’m sure his lawyers are probably going crazy because he’s not going to shut up about it. It’s completely out of control,” McConnell said.

Despite all of this, before the 2020 election, McConnell still appeared at a rally with Trump in Kentucky. He thanked her for “making America great again.”

That speech focused largely on the impact Trump and McConnell have had together on influencing the federal courts.

In ‘The Price of Power’, McConnell Says Trump’s MAGA Move Is ‘Completely Wrong’ originally appeared on abcnews.go.com