As the midterm election battle heats up, establishment Republicans seem to have a problem, and it’s not former President Donald Trump. At least not totally.
It is other Republicans who do not have a problem standing up to them (many of those being tied to Donald Trump.)
The latest example is Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). Scott is also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate campaign arm of the GOP.
Scott is not pleased with some comments made last month by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
There has to be something worse to call McConnell than RINO.
He’s not even a Republican in Name Only.
In fact, he’s not a Republican at all but rather an angry, bitter old man who’d rather sink the party than sprint to victory.https://t.co/fk5QFxCRDw
— Daniel F. Baranowski (@DFBHarvard) September 1, 2022
Demeaning Candidates
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Mitch McConnell was at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Luncheon when he was asked about the possibility of Republicans taking over control of the Senate in November.
McConnell stated that there was a better chance of the House being taken over by the GOP than the Senate. But it was this knock on the candidates chosen by Republican voters that have drawn some ire: “Senate races are just different, they’re statewide. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
In response, Scott stated that he and McConnell have “a strategic disagreement” about that.
During an interview with Politico, Scott said:
“We have great candidates. He wants to do the same thing I want to do: I want to get a majority. And I think it’s important that we’re all cheerleaders for our candidates. If you trash talk our candidates … you hurt our chances of winning, and you hurt our candidates’ ability to raise money. I know they’re good candidates, because I’ve been talking to them and they’re working their butts off.”
Scott added that negative talk about GOP candidates was “not productive.”
Rick Scott just unloading on Mitch McConnell here. And Mitch deserves it. Completely. https://t.co/bjz1rJdFlD pic.twitter.com/lDAyaBSRF3
— Christopher Bedford (@CBedfordDC) September 1, 2022
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Trump Also Responds
At the time of McConnell’s comments, Donald Trump also had some thoughts on the leader of the Senate Republicans bad mouthing candidates, many of whom just happened to be endorsed by Trump.
It’s the latest episode in an ongoing feud of sorts between Trump and McConnell. Their back and forth tends to illustrate the growing pains going on within the party. Old Guard establishment types who have been in Washington D.C. forever and don’t want to confront Democrats on anything, versus a new generation of no-nonsense Republicans who have no problem taking on the Democrats and winning.
Trump stated, “Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard-working Republican candidates for the United States Senate? This is such an affront to honor and to leadership.”
Earlier the same week, Trump had called for the GOP to immediately oust McConnell. He called McConnell “a pawn for the Democrats.” The second statement on Truth Social was in response to a story by the The Federalist, which claimed that McConnell and his wife, former Trump Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, had “spent decades getting rich on China.”
Trump also said of the McConnells, “The Democrats have Mitch McConnell and his lovely wife, Elaine ‘Coco’ Chao, over a barrel. He and she will never be prosecuted, as per the last paragraphs of this story, as long as he continues to give the Radical Left the Trillions and Trillions of Dollars that they constantly DEMAND.”
McConnell sabotaging Republican Senate candidates needs to absolutely be the end of the road for him in leadership. People need to start demanding he resign. Do not send another dime to the party committees.
— Kyle Raccio (@kyleraccio) August 26, 2022
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Maybe Mitch Could Start Helping
Mitch McConnell has made it clear that not only does he not like Donald Trump, but he doesn’t like Trump-endorsed candidates as well. The former is fine. The second is not, for a person in his position.
McConnell is going to have to answer whether he really wants to win in November and retake the Senate, or continue to be a puppet for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats and go along to get along.
While there is still a way to go, GOP candidates in key Senate races could use the boost. According to Real Clear Politics average polls, in Arizona, Democrat Senator Mark Kelly is up by six points to GOP challenger Blake Masters.
In Georgia, the race is tightening, with Sen. Raphael Warnock up by just one point over Herschel Walker. In Ohio, J.D. Vance is up by 3.7 points over Sen. Tim Ryan. In the all-important Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, far-left Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is up by 6.5 points over Dr. Mehmet Oz, and in Wisconsin, Democrat Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is up over Sen. Ron Johnson by 4.3 points.
Maybe Mitch McConnell could stop playing mean girls with Donald Trump long enough to help some Republicans win.
Rick Scott is leading where Mitch McConnell won’t. https://t.co/cTEqybqypM
— Collin Pruett (@pruett_collin) August 29, 2022
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