Mitch McConnell stiff-arms Trump as ex-president calls for his demotion

[Valin]

The Washington Examiner

David M. Drucker, Senior Political Correspondent

October 09, 2021

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.”

(Snip)