Tag: Sen. McConnell

McConnell Makes It Clear That Republicans Won’t Do Anything to Protect Mueller from Trump

The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet website April 17, 2018:

“I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dismissed calls on Tuesday for legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller, saying that he doesn’t think President Donald Trump will fire the lead investigator in charge of the Russia investigation.

“I don’t think he should fire Mueller, and I don’t think he’s going to, so this is a piece of legislation that is not necessary, in my judgment,” Mcconnell said on Fox News.

A growing number of Republican lawmakers have endorsed legislation to protect Mueller in recent days following the president’s fury over the federal raid on his attorney Michael Cohen. Neil Cavuto, the Fox News host who interviewed McConnell, pointed this fact out to the majority leader.

“But I’m the one who decides what we take to the floor,” McConnell said. “That’s my responsibility as the majority leader. And we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”

McConnell said he would be “shocked” if Trump does fire Mueller.

Former Obama chief of staff said top Senate Republican ‘watered down’ pre-election Russia warning

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website March 4, 2018:

Credit: AP Photo / Ron Sachs

A former chief of staff to President Barack Obama said Sunday that the Senate’s top Republican insisted that a bipartisan appeal for states to step up election security in the face of Russian aggression be “dramatically watered down” before it was issued in advance of the 2016 election.

Denis McDonough said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was single-handedly responsible for downgrading the language in a letter “asking the states to work with us” to better secure election systems in light of intelligence indicating Russia was attempting to interfere in the election. McDonough complained that members of Congress have shown a “stunning lack of urgency about this question,” and he put the blame mostly on Republican leaders in Congress. Continue reading “Former Obama chief of staff said top Senate Republican ‘watered down’ pre-election Russia warning”

This is the week that the GOP truly became the party of Trump

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2018:

President Trump appears to have won over the Republican establishment, as shown in its blessing of the release of a House Intelligence Committee memo alleging wrongdoing by the FBI and the Justice Dpt. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

This was the week when the Republican Party finally went all in with President Trump. What once seemed unlikely is now reality. The Republican establishment — there are a few dissenting voices, of course — has succumbed to the power of the presidency, and this president in particular.

This coming together has taken place gradually. The path has been rocky at times. But the embrace of the president by elected Republicans could not have been warmer or fuller than shown in the past week. Continue reading “This is the week that the GOP truly became the party of Trump”

McConnell: ‘Impossible’ to promise every member of middle class gets a tax cut

NOTE:  The middle class cuts expire, while the corporate and top bracket decreases are permanent.

The following article by Mallory Shellbourne was posted on the Hill website December 3, 2017:

Mitch McConnell (Credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that “it’s impossible” to promise that the GOP’s tax overhaul will lower the taxes of every person in the middle class.

“Well, it’s impossible to do that,” McConnell told ABC News’s “This Week.”

“You can’t craft any bill that would guarantee no one was in a special category that might get a tax increase,” the majority leader added.

McConnell’s interview comes after the Senate early Saturday passed its tax-reform bill, which includes the repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate.

“Every segment of taxpayers, every category of taxpayers, on average, gets significant relief,” McConnell said of the bill on Sunday.

McConnell: Moore Must Step Aside If Allegations True

The following post by Eric Garcia and Bridget Bowman was posted on the Roll Call website November 9, 2017:

Ala. candidate initiated sexual encounter with girl, reports say

Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore is questioned by the media in the Capitol on Oct. 31. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Updated 3:17 p.m. | Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is accused of initiating a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32, according to The Washington Post.

“If these allegations are true, he must step aside,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday.

Leigh Corfman said she was approached by Moore in 1979 outside an Alabama courtroom in Etowah County and exchanged numbers with him.

Later, he drove her to his house and kissed her, she said. In another encounter, Corfman said Moore took off his clothes and undressed her while she touched his underwear.

“I wanted it over with — I wanted out,” she told the Post.

Two of Corfman’s friends said she told them at the time. Continue reading “McConnell: Moore Must Step Aside If Allegations True”

Trump’s Relationship with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell Might Just Have Hit Rock Bottom

The following article by Jefferson Morley was posted on the AlterNet website September 7, 2017:

The president dumps the GOP for a fling with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Credit: Business Insider

With the election of Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan made a Faustian bargain. They embraced Trump—an impulsive and ignorant man, filled with racial animus—with the hope they could ride his popularity with conservative voters to enact their agenda of tax cuts and deregulation.

Their corruption caught up with them on Wednesday. Trump humiliated the Republican leaders by siding with their Democratic counterparts Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. In a White House meeting, Trump blindsided his allies and endorsed the Democrats’ proposal for hurricane relief and raising the debt ceiling. Continue reading “Trump’s Relationship with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell Might Just Have Hit Rock Bottom”

Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America

The following column by Dana Milbank was posted on the Washington Post website April 7, 2017:

“No majority leader wants written on his tombstone that he presided over the end of the Senate,” the minority leader said.

He continued: “Breaking the rules to change the rules is un-American. I just hope the majority leader thinks about his legacy, the future of his party, and, most importantly, the future of our country before he acts.” Continue reading “Mitch McConnell, the man who broke America”