Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Tuesday that the political winds will be “in our face” during the 2018 midterm elections.
“This is going to be a challenging election year,” McConnell told Kentucky Today. “We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4 or 5.”
“I’m hoping we can hold the Senate,” the majority leader added. “And the principal reason for that, even if we were to lose the House and be stymied legislatively, we could still approve appointments, which is a huge part of what we do.”
Separately in the interview, McConnell said that blocking former President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, from receiving a confirmation hearing following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia was “was the most consequential decision I’ve made in my entire public career.”
Fourteen months after Scalia’s death, Senate Republicans eliminated the filibuster rule for Supreme Court nominees to confirm Trump’s nominee, Neil Gorsuch, with a 54-45 vote.
Similar Senate obstruction prevented dozens of Obama’s lower court nominees from receiving confirmation votes.
McConnell cited the subsequent wave of Trump-nominated judges as a lasting legacy. Recounting a conversation with the White House counsel soon after Trump’s election to Kentucky Today, McConnell said he suggested Trump nominate young judges.
“I said ‘we’ve got a chance to transform the country in a very significant way for the next generation if we can get our act together,’” McConnell said.
“We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4 or 5.”
You will also have these folks - and perhaps (hopefully) more awareness of the propaganda that they spew - and diminishing their imppact:
well McConnel is a big liar and a bigger obstructionist, his day has come and gone. he changed the Senate for the worst. history will not look kindly at him stealing a Supreme Court appointment. just like the banana republic he and the House have rolling right now. shame on the Power hungry money grubbing Republicans. their fate awaits them. History portends the future for evil men such as he. You will be known by your works Mitch
VOTE VOTE VOTE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.*
*'cause it does
Hearing him claim that his “legacy” is blocking Judge Gorsuch from becoming a supreme court justice makes me want to vomit. If the only legacy you can claim is obstruction, then you have a piss-poor legacy.