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elleng

(130,156 posts)
Wed Jan 9, 2019, 02:42 AM Jan 2019

Sen. Mitch McConnell has a problem - And it's Donald Trump

*Now McConnell refuses to bring the House legislation up for a vote in the Senate without Trump’s support. In response, Pelosi accused McConnell of abdicating his responsibility as Senate majority leader.

Why is McConnell ducking this fight now? Mitch McConnell has a problem – and it’s Donald Trump. Senate Republicans are facing a tough 2020 election with 22 seats to defend and they may be starting to realize Trump is a liability. In fact, one of those Republican senators up for re-election in 2020 is Mitch McConnell.

The cracks in the GOP veneer are evident. Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine – both up for re-election in 2020 – are calling for an end to the government shutdown and are supporting the House legislation they both voted for a few weeks ago.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who recently announced that he’s not running for re-election in 2020, said: “There is no excuse for even a short-term, partial government shutdown … I'm not for a government shutdown under President Trump.”

Joining Alexander in announcing his retirement is Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan. – and we’re just in the second week of 2019.

Freshman Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, set an independent tone for the new Senate term with his critical op-ed about President Trump in The Washington Post.

Romney wrote: “With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring …. To reassume our leadership in world politics, we must repair failings in our politics at home. That project begins, of course, with the highest office once again acting to inspire and unite us.”

Trump is even a factor in McConnell’s re-election in Kentucky, where the senator faces a potential primary challenge from Gov. Matt Bevin, a Trump devotee.

If McConnell draws a primary challenge from his right by Bevin that could pose the biggest political threat of all to the Senate majority leader. It is possible that McConnell, 76, may even decide not to run for re-election. Given all that has happened in the last two years, nothing can be ruled out.

McConnell is facing pressure from all sides and everywhere he turns there is Trump. The Senate majority is at risk, his iron grip on the Republican caucus seems to be slipping, and his own political future is potentially in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, Republican senators are starting to see Trump as a liability. An unpopular president, pushing an unpopular wall, and an unpopular government shutdown – all three opposed by the majority of Americans – combine to put McConnell in an untenable situation.'>>>

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-mitch-mcconnell-has-a-problem-and-its-donald-trump.amp?

BEST NEWS I've seen in MONTHS!

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Sen. Mitch McConnell has a problem - And it's Donald Trump (Original Post) elleng Jan 2019 OP
Never fear. joshdawg Jan 2019 #1
Mitch will not run again. True Blue American Jan 2019 #2
He's the most unpopular Senator in both the nation and his home state. Scruffy1 Jan 2019 #3

joshdawg

(2,637 posts)
1. Never fear.
Wed Jan 9, 2019, 04:35 AM
Jan 2019

These republicans will bad mouth the shutdown, they will say trump is an idiot, but when it comes down to voting against the idiot, they won't. They will all fall in line and all over themselves to prove their "loyalty" to the asswipe infecting the W.H. They are all complicit in trump's lies.

True Blue American

(17,972 posts)
2. Mitch will not run again.
Wed Jan 9, 2019, 04:57 AM
Jan 2019

He said he almost retired last time. But he will not announce it until he has to. Trying to hang on to power as long as he can.

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