In the moments after former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate for a second time in a little more than a year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rose to speak, CNN reported.

His message was clear: the former President could not be the future of the Republican Party.

"Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty," McConnell said on the Senate floor Saturday.

"Anyone who decries his awful behavior is accused of insulting millions of voters. That is an absurd deflection," McConnell added. "Seventy-four million Americans did not invade the Capitol. Hundreds of rioters did. Seventy-four million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it. One person did. Just one."