Speaking to a Kentucky Rotary Group Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed Congress is is operating the way it should and said the President’s critiques of the legislative process are producing an inaccurate picture of how Congress works.
“Our new President, of course, has not been in this line of work before. I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell said, according to a CNN affiliate.
He said there have been “too many artificial deadlines” created in the public sphere, which has caused confusion over how Congress operates.
“Part of the reason I think people think we’re under-performing is because of too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality of the legislature, which may have not been understood,” he said.
McConnell’s comments come a few weeks after his party failed to produce a simple majority to pass a skinny Obamacare repeal bill before the start of the August recess.
The President tweeted after the repeal vote failure, saying Republicans should change Senate rules to allow legislation to pass with 51 votes. McConnell later dismissed President Donald Trump’s tweets, saying he “didn’t have 50 Republicans” to push through the bill.
“The votes are simply not there,” he said at an Aug. 1 press conference.
Back home in Kentucky Monday, McConnell also said he wished the President wouldn’t tweet so much.
“I’ve been, and I will be again today, not a fan of tweeting and I’ve said that to him privately. I think it would be helpful if the President would be a little more on message,” he said.
