WATCH: Former McConnell Adviser Tries to Defend GOP Voting Against Commission and Fails Miserably

Mitch McConnell has been much more willing to blast Donald Trump than Kevin McCarthy has. Still, the senate minority leader protected the former president on Friday by encouraging his members to vote against the 1/6 commission.

There is little defending the Kentucky senator here as his motives were purely political. That doesn’t mean, though, that some Republicans aren’t going to try. Scott Jennings, a former adviser to McConnell, argued on his behalf during a Saturday morning appearance on CNN.

Jennings told Christi Paul and Boris Sanchez:

“From the Republican or conservative point of view, they tend not to vote for more government when they think the government they have are already working. They think it’s working more swiftly than people might have thought and working quite well and that this might be overkill. That’s one reason I think it’s a defensible political argument.”

Maria Cardona, arguing from the Democratic point of view, shot back, “The issue is that Republicans do not want to know the truth. They want to sweep it under the rug. We saw Donald Trump was the one who inspired and called people to go to the Capitol to keep the electors from — to keep the members of Congress from certifying the election. They do not want this to be front and center for them as we go into the mid-terms, but guess what: the fact that they knocked this down to me is not a smart political strategy because it’s going to be a huge reason why this is going to be front and center.”