Senate Leader McConnell said to believe Trump has committed impeachable offenses

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has privately acknowledged he believes President Trump has committed impeachable offenses, sources confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday.

The New York Times was first to report that McConnell was pleased Democrats were moving to impeach Trump.

McConnell is said to have told associates that he thinks Trump being impeached and then potentially convicted and removed from office by the U.S. Senate "will make it easier to purge him from the (Republican) party" and rebuild it.

The Kentucky GOP senator, once one of Trump's most powerful allies, now reportedly plans to never speak to him again over the violence at the U.S. Capitol.

People familiar with McConnell's thinking indicated he's furious about last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol by the President's supporters, even more so that Trump has shown no contrition.

McConnell has not said publicly whether he would vote to impeach Trump and a McConnell spokesman declined to comment.

McConnell's privately expressed views on this impeachment attempt is a stark contrast to Trump's first impeachment when McConnell repeatedly spoke out against Democratic intentions to hold Trump accountable for a pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government to investigate Joe Biden.

At least three House Republicans -- Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming, Rep. John Katko, R-New York, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois -- have said they will vote to impeach the president this time around.

(ABC News and CNN contributed to this report.)