{"id":2173371,"date":"2024-02-11T07:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T12:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcconnell-resists-calls-for-leadership-change-as-foes-consider-mccarthy-like-revolt\/"},"modified":"2024-02-11T07:26:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T12:26:02","slug":"mcconnell-resists-calls-for-leadership-change-as-foes-consider-mccarthy-like-revolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mcconnell-resists-calls-for-leadership-change-as-foes-consider-mccarthy-like-revolt\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell resists calls for leadership change as foes consider McCarthy-like revolt"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmcconnell-resists-calls-for-leadership-change-as-foes-consider-mccarthy-like-revolt%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2173371&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Before the ink had even dried on a long-awaited immigration and foreign aid bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the deal lacked support in the Republican conference, a proposal he had personally championed.<\/p>\n<p>    The moment illustrated the changed landscape on Capitol Hill, as the Kentucky Republican\u2019s influence continues to wane with his fellow Republicans and the party shifts more to the right with former President Donald Trump\u2019s influence. The front-runner for the GOP nomination staunchly opposed the deal and has long pushed for Senate Republicans to ditch McConnell.<\/p>\n<p>    It was an abrupt change from just three months earlier when Republicans demanded Democrats agree to a series of changes in border policy in exchange for additional foreign aid. In the days since McConnell had tapped Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) to negotiate the deal, Trump had commanding wins in the GOP primary race in Iowa and New Hampshire, consolidating his control over the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    The failure of the border deal is giving new fuel for Republican critics who have been working to oust McConnell. The longest-serving Senate GOP leader continues to face a wave of Republican senators who are more loyal to Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cWe don\u2019t have an effective leader, but that\u2019s been my position for the last year and a half. The last few months have been abysmally embarrassing,\u201d said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), coming out of a party meeting on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    ELECTION 2024: FOLLOW LATEST COVERAGE<\/p>\n<p>    Earlier in the week, a group of McConnell\u2019s foes, many of whom were the first to speak out against the proposal, took a victory lap after it appeared they had successfully tanked the legislation. They also took the opportunity to question McConnell\u2019s leadership for allowing a deal to emerge that the majority of the conference rejected.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cThis just blew up in leader McConnell\u2019s face, and now he\u2019s tried to blame President Trump,\u201d said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), speaking with reporters on Wednesday. \u201cThis [deal] does more harm than good, and that\u2019s not James Lankford\u2019s fault, that\u2019s leader McConnell\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    In 2022, McConnell easily beat Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) in the first challenge to his leadership in 15 years amid infighting over the party\u2019s disappointing performance in the midterm elections. Scott received 10 votes out of 49 Republicans at that time.<\/p>\n<p>    But since then, a growing number of Senate Republicans continue to be vocal about their grievances with McConnell, including frustrations with his support for U.S. aid to Ukraine. The minority leader\u2019s health has also been in the spotlight when he froze up during two different appearances last summer after becoming concussed from a fall in the spring, which raised questions about whether a changing of the guard was necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reflected on a closed-door session with McConnell\u00a0back in 2022 when he and several other senators pressed McConnell following the leadership election to pursue more confrontation and more aggressive negotiating tactics in talks with Biden and the Democrats over the next two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cI turned to Mitch McConnell then and I said, \u2018Look, we spent the last two years with a group, a handful of Republicans joining with Democrats to pass the Democrat agenda,\u2019\u201d said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who voted against the Republican leader during internal elections back in 2022. \u201cI turned to Mitch then, and I said, \u2018Is there anything you\u2019re willing to fight on? Is there anything you\u2019re willing to draw a line in the sand and say we will fight?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cHe refused to answer that question, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re in this mess,\u201d Cruz added.<\/p>\n<p>    Some of McConnell\u2019s foes are starting to compare the current situation to the ouster of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the speakership after he helped broker a deal with Democrats on the debt ceiling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cI mean, it\u2019s betrayal. How is what McConnell just did with this border deal any different than what McCarthy did?\u201d questioned a Republican senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity. \u201cHe\u2019s been in charge for far too long. It\u2019s time to bring in new blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Trump\u2019s influence has created obstacles for the Republican leader, with the composition of the conference shifting away from longtime establishment members to those with views more sympathetic to the former president.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    The conference no longer includes members like former Sens. Jeff Flake, Bob Corker, Ben Sasse, Rob Portman, and Roy Blunt, senators who often had a higher allegiance to McConnell over Trump. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) will join them soon enough after announcing his retirement last year.<\/p>\n<p>    McConnell\u2019s job doesn\u2019t appear to be immediately in danger. Scott admitted there isn\u2019t much the conference can do at this point until after the November 2024 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cThere will be an election after the November election. As you know, I ran, I put out my plan of what we should do and how we ought to operate,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI hope we have a robust discussion about how we ought to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    McConnell and his allies emphasize that he\u2019s not going anywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cThey\u2019ve had their shot,\u201d he said in an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday, referring to the critics in the conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    While the Senate minority leader\u2019s critics have become more outspoken, there is little evidence that those voices have grown beyond the members who voted against McConnell back in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cI think the isolated attacks from certain members of the pack on Sen. McConnell as leader are out of bounds,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), speaking with reporters on Thursday. \u201cAt the beginning of this Congress, those who did not support his continuance as leader had the opportunity to replace him. The caucus voted overwhelmingly to keep him, and I think these personal attacks need to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Doug Heye, the former communications director of the Republican National Committee, said he believes the calls to remove McConnell are overblown.<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cIt\u2019s because some of the more bombastic members are out there. Ted Cruz criticizing Mitch McConnell isn\u2019t news. But, your Twitter feed will be filled with people talking about it, and Twitter is not real life,\u201d Heye said.<\/p>\n<p>    Heye believes even though McConnell\u2019s typical allies like Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), a former member of leadership, and Thom Tillis (R-NC) came out against the bipartisan immigration proposal, that doesn\u2019t mean anything about the strength of McConnell\u2019s leadership.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cThey all weighed in late, they weren\u2019t out there opposing the bill early. They saw the politics on this. By the time I saw anything on Cornyn really, the bill was dead,\u201d Heye said.<\/p>\n<p>    While the division within the party is palpable, some say there\u2019s a lot going on behind the scenes that hasn\u2019t necessarily come to light.<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cFor every person who\u2019s trying to mess with McConnell, there\u2019s a counterweight with someone else who\u2019s really upset with those who are wasting time and making Senate Republicans look like House Republicans,\u201d said a Republican strategist, who preferred to remain anonymous in an effort to reflect candidly on the situation.<\/p>\n<p>    CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After a sweeping emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel inched ahead in the Senate on Thursday with the help of 17 Republicans, there\u2019s a glimmer of hope for the measure after a series of setbacks. However, multiple Republicans have demanded votes on border amendments before final passage, underscoring how immigration continues to split Republicans even as leadership attempts to move past the failed deal.<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cBig legislation \u2014 forget Donald Trump for a minute \u2014 big legislation is very hard to do, period. On immigration, it\u2019s impossible to do,\u201d Heye said. \u201cThis is an issue that Republicans have never been able to do anything on. I think Lankford worked out the best possible deal that Republicans could have hoped for, not sure what they will do now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> !function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(&#8220;has-featured-video&#8221;,&#8221;true&#8221;)})}();var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({&#8220;div&#8221;:&#8221;Brid_1553059&#8243;,&#8221;obj&#8221;:{&#8220;id&#8221;:&#8221;27789&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;1280&#8243;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;720&#8243;,&#8221;stickyDirection&#8221;:&#8221;below&#8221;,&#8221;video&#8221;:&#8221;1553059&#8243;}});<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the ink had even dried on a long-awaited immigration and foreign aid bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced the deal lacked support in the Republican conference, a proposal he had personally championed. The moment illustrated the changed landscape on Capitol Hill, as the Kentucky Republican\u2019s influence continues to wane with his fellow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2657,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2173371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2173371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2173371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2173371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2173371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2173371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}