Tag: Mitch McConnell

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Donald Trump GOP

Trump Slams Mitch McConnell As ‘Gutless’ And A ‘Stupid F**ker’ In Rambling Interview

It’s starting to dawn on failed, one-term former President Donald Trump that he’s going down in history as one of the worst chief executives in U.S. history, so he’s lashing out at everyone in the Republican Party as if he believes he can incinerate the GOP and walk away from the ashes like some sort of overweight, dimwitted phoenix.

During five hours of interviews he gave to Mollie Hemingway of the right-wing Federalist Society, Trump blamed the fact that he lost the 2020 election on everyone but the responsible party: Himself.

Instead, the loser ex-president placed the onus on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), branding him a “stupid fucker” and “a disgrace to the Republican Party.”

“He’s gutless. He should have fought for us on the rigged election. Can you imagine Schumer saying ‘We have to declare Trump the winner to get the country going’?”

And yet, that’s precisely what Schumer said when Trump was elected in 2016:

Trump also told Hemingway that “The problem with the Republicans is they don’t know how to fight.”

Asked about Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), who has been critical of the former president, Trump labeled Sasse “a terrible senator” who is “stupid” and a “loser.”

And then there was what Trump said about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who reportedly lived with pollster Frank Luntz at one time:

“Uh, that Luntz thing is weird, right? What’s that all about? I don’t think it’s a romance. I think it’s just, they know each other or something. I can’t imagine. I don’t think — I mean, if you’re thinking it — but it is weird.

“You know, we’re past the age of roommates. You don’t do that.”

Know what else you don’t do? You don’t sit and gossip to a right-wing hack writer about members of your own political party. And if you do, then it’s clear you’re intent on burning down the whole thing for your own self-aggrandizement.

There’s lots of speculation over whether or not Trump will run again in 2024. If he does, there will plenty of knives out for him, and he shouldn’t be surprised when the very people he’s trashing now show up to return the favor.

 

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Congress Joe Biden U.S. Senate

Joe Biden Has Found A Way To Beat Mitch McConnell At His Own Game

Just as he did when Barack Obama was president, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has vowed to obstruct every piece of legislation that comes from the Biden administration, and he appears to have most Senate Republicans on board with the plan.

But what McConnell forgot to factor into his scheme is that President Joe Biden also served in the Senate for decades and knows how the upper chamber of Congress works, which means he has a distinct advantage over the Senate Minority Leader, who is now almost powerless to do anything other than make speeches.

Take for example the White House’s infrastructure package, which Biden continues to insist he wants to have Republicans support, so he keeps talking and negotiating with them.

As NBC National Political Reporter Sahil Kapur explained Wednesday on MSNBC, Biden is reaching out to the GOP because he wants to keep every Senate Democrat on board:

“He has to negotiate with Republicans, he believes, Democrats believe in order to convince the centrist holdouts in the Senate. And also, the House, which doesn’t get quite as much attention, they want to pursue bipartisanship as well. They want to go home and say they did everything they could. The key thing to know is when president Biden is negotiating with Sen. Caputo, he’s really negotiating with Mitch McConnell. There are not ten Republican votes unless you get Mitch McConnell’s signoff for anything major.”

And there’s another strategy in play when it comes to what Biden is doing regarding McConnell: It gives the president flexibility to cut deals on the side with the GOP that also serve to undermine McConnell and weaken his already tenuous hold on his caucus:

“(Biden) can potentially come to an agreement on a number or something like that, but translating that to actual legislation to get ten Republican votes is a much more complicated task. The White House’s challenge here is to figure out whether to cut a deal with Republicans. At best, he can probably get a small deal that falls far short of his target and try to do something separately with Democrats or maybe do the whole thing alone he thinks that could undercut the big package.”

President Biden would love to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, but he doesn’t need a single Republican as long as he keeps all 50 Democrats on board. Then he can use reconciliation and get a massive infrastructure package through Congress with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.

Mitch McConnell is irrelevant and he knows it. And at the moment Joe Biden is besting him at his own game, proving that while the Kentucky Republican may well be a master Senate tactician, he’s met his match in this president.

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Congress GOP GOP Whining

Pelosi Puts McCarthy And McConnell On Notice: There WILL Be A Full 1/6 Investigation

Even though the House of Representatives passed a bill creating a bipartisan commission to investigate what transpired on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol, Senate Republicans decided to filibuster passage of the legislation, meaning the bill will never even reach the floor of the upper chamber.

Despite that, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made it clear that there is going to be full investigation of the insurrection which took place on 1/6, telling reporters that it took a while to get a commission set up to look at the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001:

” I know that because I had the first bill and we lost on the floor. We were in the minority at the time. And then Tim Roemer had the amendment to the intelligence bill, with the help of the families, and that’s how we got the bill passed and then to the president’s desk, but it took time. This has been really on an accelerated pace, even though why don’t we have it? Well, it’s in the works, and it takes time to negotiate.”

Pelosi then added she’s optimistic details can be worked out for a commission similar to the one for 9/11, but didn’t rule out setting one up without the cooperation of Republicans:

“In the meantime though, in 2011 — I mean, excuse me. 2001 and 2002, leading up to that, we had a joint committee in the House and Senate, bipartisan committee which I was a co-chair, as the top Democrat of the intelligence committee, Bob Graham was the chairman of the intelligence committee in the Senate. So he and Shelby in the House. And we had, months of hearings and the rest, and the work produced by that committee was very helpful to the 9/11 commission and to the legislation establishing it said it should take advantage of all of those things, as we would hope that this commission would take advantage of some of the other oversight committees’ work. So let’s just hope that we can have the clarity of a bipartisan commission with high-level national leaders on it.”

There is going to be a 1/6 commission. If Republicans choose not to be a part of it, that’s their problem. But the American people have a right to know what happened on that fateful day earlier this year. And if an investigation proves members of the GOP played a role, they need to be booted from Congress and criminally charged.

Let justice be done though the heavens may fall!

 

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GOP Joe Biden U.S. Senate

McConnell Is Worried Because Joe Biden Is Delivering Results For Americans

Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is not happy.

Now that he’s Senate Minority Leader and has absolutely no power whatsoever, McConnell is irrelevant and cannot make a single decision when it comes to Senate business.

 

Even worse for McConnell is the fact that President Joe Biden has good poll numbers and Americans say they agree with the vast majority of his policy proposals, including his infrastructure plan and wanting to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers.

All of this has McConnell very nervous, according to presidential historian Tim Naftali, who made his remarks during an appearance on CNN “Newsroom”:

“Mitch McConnell is nervous. When Mitch McConnell, who doesn’t really care much about the writing of history, starts talking about the 1619 Project, when others in his caucus start talking about the fact that the federal government doesn’t want you to eat red meat, they’re trying to change the subject.”

Naftali then added that Biden is playing McConnell and the GOP like a fiddle because he knows exactly how to beat them at their own game:

“Because Biden has been in Washington so long, he knows how Democrats have failed,” continued Naftali. “Biden understands you’ve got to change the message. You’ve got to deliver for rural America. Mitch McConnell sees that as a threat. Will he be successful if the people of Kentucky start to see the benefits of a Biden-pushed stimulus and infrastructure program.”

Imagine it’s 2024 and Biden has indeed created millions of new jobs with his economic programs. The economy is humming along and the incumbent president has high approval ratings. Democrats have added to their majority in the House and Senate and the GOP looks like little more than a party of whiners.

Mitch McConnell should be nervous. He’s up against a man who wasn’t thought to have any chance of being president. Now he’s in the White House and he’s kicking McConnell’s ass on a daily basis.

Here’s Tim Naftali on CNN:

 

Categories
U.S. Senate

Mitch McConnell Considering Exit From The Senate Before His Term In Office Expires

Now that he no longer has any political relevance and is in the minority, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is preparing to exit the U.S. Senate long before his term expires in 2026, according to a report from The Intercept, which notes that McConnell is also trying to make sure he gets to choose his successor:

“Mitch McConnell has compiled a short list of successors in his home state of Kentucky, preparing for the possibility that he does not serve out his full term, Kentucky Republicans tell The Intercept.

“The list is topped by his protégé, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron, and also includes former United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft, whose billionaire coal magnate husband is a major McConnell donor, as well as Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a former McConnell Scholar.”

However, there is one major obstacle to McConnell’s plan: The person who would name his replacement is Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat. So Mitch is attempting to rig the system to his and the GOP’s advantage:

“New legislation McConnell is pushing in the Kentucky General Assembly would strip the governor of that power and put it into the hands of the state GOP.”

Why the sudden urge to leave on McConnell’s behalf? That depends on who you talk to. Some cite health concerns while others indicate that being minority leader has sapped his interest in being a member of the Senate. In other words, if he can’t be in control, he wants to take his toys and go home.

There’s also the matter of McConnell’s age. He’s 79 and would be 85 if he served out his current term in office.

Rumors that McConnell’s health is failing have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill:

“In 2003, McConnell underwent a triple bypass heart surgery. In late October 2020, McConnell dismissed concerns over his health after appearing with bruised and bandaged hands days before his reelection. The previous year, the Kentucky Republican spent weeks recuperating after a fall which forced him to have surgery for a shoulder injury.”

Could it be that McConnell will soon be back home in Kentucky, retired and living out the last years of his life a form of self-imposed exile? The progress of the legislation in the state assembly may decide what Mitch’s next move will be.