Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had one job in 2022: reclaim the Senate majority from Democrats. The longtime Kentucky Republican had a lot going for him in that cause.
Two years ago, electoral map heavily advantaged Republicans, with vulnerable Democrat seats up for grabs in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Joe Biden’s approval rating dropped below 40% and his presidency could already be considered a failure. The nation was in the throes of a migrant crisis and an affordability crisis; its leader seemingly doddering on the brink of a health crisis all his own.
True to form, congressional Republicans snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
McConnell was the biggest culprit. His campaign apparatus spent money to put conservative candidates aligned with former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement in a hole, then attempted to get these candidates out of that hole during the general election. Finite resources meant abandoning Senate hopefuls Blake Masters in Arizona and Donald Bolduc in New Hampshire for the cause of Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
Just a few weeks from now, will a similar story be told? Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, seems to fear so.
In a new biography of the outgoing Senate Republican leader by the AP’s Michael Tackett, titled “The Price of Power,” McConnell takes aim at Trump and MAGA. McConnell reportedly calls Trump a “sleazeball” and MAGA “completely wrong.”
Almost every Republican Senate candidate hoping to flip a Democrat seat (the exception being former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan) has fully embraced Trump and the MAGA movement, and McConnell, as the Senate GOP’s frontman, is tasked with allocating vast amounts of resources to get these candidates elected.
Will this be McConnell’s parting gift to Trump and his Republican colleagues?
The Kentucky senator is stepping down from his leadership position after enjoying the longest tenure of any leader in the chamber’s history, though he’s expected to serve out the rest of his term, which ends in January 2027.
After the November election, Senate Republicans are expected to vote on McConnell’s replacement atop the Republican conference, and Lee is demanding the three declared candidates—Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., John Thune, R-S.D., and John Cornyn, R Texas—to weigh in on McConnell’s purported remarks.
“McConnell’s attacks on Donald Trump & Rick Scott are indefensible,” Lee said in a X thread. McConnell also goes after Scott for challenging him for GOP leader after the 2022 election cycle in Tackett’s new book. “Those running for Senate GOP leadership posts need to weigh in on this & commit never to sabotage Republican candidates & colleagues—particularly those who are less than two weeks away from a close election.”
“We must have clarity from the candidates running to replace McConnell on where they stand on these attacks. They must be clear on how they plan to lead the conference, and on the role of its members,” Lee said in a subsequent X post. “The Senate Republican leader is supposed to help Republicans, not undermine them[.] Sadly, we’ve had too much of the latter[.] That must end now.”
Scott, who is up for re-election in Florida, issued a retort to McConnell’s comments. “While Leader McConnell and I have fundamental disagreements, I am shocked that he would attack a fellow Republican senator and the Republican nominee for president just two weeks out from an election,” Scott told Fox News Digital.
“I believe we should be talking about solutions; he doesn’t,” Scott said of McConnell.
As for Trump, Scott said, “I support Donald Trump and his work to fundamentally change the way Washington operates; he doesn’t. I believe we should support the candidates Republican voters choose; he doesn’t.”
“With almost $36 trillion in debt, an open southern border, historic inflation, and a world on fire, I know we need dramatic change, and he doesn’t,” Scott concluded.
Thune, meanwhile, was more chambré. Thune said he’s “focused on electing a strong Senate Republican majority that can hit the ground running,” according to Politico.
“Senate Republicans shouldn’t have to worry about being sabotaged by their own leadership,” Lee told The Daily Signal. “I hope the candidates for the top job disavow such behavior in the future to earn our votes.”
It was a rather voracious outburst by McConnell standards. What could be the impetus?
One possible explanation is that McConnell’s view of Senate leadership appears on the outs with his possible successors. Scott wants a 180-degree turn away from McConnell’s style of leadership. Meanwhile, Thune and Cornyn have each signaled openness to leadership reforms proposed by Lee and other conservatives in the Republican conference.
And it might only be the beginning of McConnell lashing out against Republicans.
“I’m still a traditional Republican,” McConnell recently claimed, according to Aishah Hasnie of Fox News. “There are some on my side now who don’t sound that way. I’m going to be arguing more with them probably than the Democrats.”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
