Mitch McConnell stiff-arms Trump as ex-president calls for his demotion
Sen. Mitch McConnell has stiff-armed Donald Trump at every turn since the former president exited the White House, ignoring his policy demands and disregarding attempts to oust him as the minority leader.
This week, the Kentucky Republican engineered a deal with Senate Democrats to temporarily lift the debt ceiling over Trump’s objections and calls for his replacement as the chamber’s top Republican, a perch he has occupied for almost 15 years. It is part of a pattern that has repeated itself since the former president’s defeat last November. Trump insists McConnell support or oppose some policy or take some course of action, and the minority leader demurs.
Trump lately has escalated his feud with McConnell by advocating for his removal as the Senate minority leader. “Mitch is not the guy, not the right guy, he’s not doing the job,” he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. McConnell’s reaction has been the same — no reaction; and not the slightest hint of altering his leadership strategy to satisfy a former president who happens to maintain a great deal of support among grassroots Republican voters.
“McConnell has one goal: helping Republicans regain control of the Senate for the purpose of enacting Republican policy goals and stifling the Democratic agenda,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican operative in Louisville and longtime McConnell adviser. “Trump lurches from one public relations [gambit] to the next; McConnell plays a longer game where there are actual political and policy goals at the end of a journey.”
McConnell and Trump tangled periodically during the 45th president’s tenure but usually found common ground on major legislation and appointments to the executive branch and the federal judiciary. But their relationship grew acrimonious since Trump lost his bid for a second term to President Joe Biden and McConnell refused to join his fanciful claims that the 2020 election was stolen and recognized the incoming administration. They have only become more estranged from each since then.
‘CIVILITY IS GONE’: MANCHIN SLAMS SCHUMER BROADSIDE AGAINST GOP
In the waning days of Trump’s presidency, McConnell became an outspoken critic of his leadership, although he voted against convicting him on a single article of impeachment alleging he fomented the ransacking of the United States Capitol by his grassroots supporters on Jan. 6. In the ensuing months, as Trump issued scathing statements criticizing McConnell and giving him marching orders on how to handle the Biden agenda, the Kentuckian gave him the cold shoulder.
McConnell, 79, has not acquiesced, nor has he responded to the 75-year-old former president’s provocations.
That approach — whether spurning Trump to lead nearly 20 Republicans in joining with Senate Democrats to support Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure package or agreeing to provide enough GOP votes to pass a two-month, $480 billion increase in the debt ceiling — has helped the seventh-term senator maintain the confidence and support of the 49 Republicans he manages, some of whom are strong Trump supporters. Others present themselves that way publicly because they are mulling a 2024…
Read More: Mitch McConnell stiff-arms Trump as ex-president calls for his demotion