{"id":2368319,"date":"2024-11-13T08:24:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T13:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mitch-mcconnell-reaches-for-one-more-power-grab\/"},"modified":"2024-11-13T08:25:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T13:25:53","slug":"mitch-mcconnell-reaches-for-one-more-power-grab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mitch-mcconnell-reaches-for-one-more-power-grab\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitch McConnell Reaches For One More Power Grab"},"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\">16<\/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%2Fmitch-mcconnell-reaches-for-one-more-power-grab%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=2368319&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>A leadership election within\u2063 the Senate Republican Conference is set to take\u2064 place the morning after a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jack-buckby-comeback-time-why-boris-johnson-must-be-on-the-tory-leadership-ballot\/\" title=\"Jack Buckby: Comeback Time? Why Boris Johnson Must Be On The Tory Leadership Ballot\">significant electoral victory<\/a> for the party,\u2062 marking a pivotal change as\u2062 Senate\u2062 control shifts to the Republicans. Senator Mitch McConnell,\u2062 who has been \u200ca prominent figure in \u200cthe Senate \u200cfor nearly two decades, announced in February that he would \u200cresign from his leadership role at the end of the year.\u200c His \u200bdeparture \u200chas\u2062 ignited a competitive race for the Senate majority leader position among candidates including \u200bSenator Rick Scott of Florida and McConnell allies Senators \u200bJohn Thune\u200c and John Cornyn. <\/p>\n<p>As tensions rise, some senators express dissatisfaction with the rapid scheduling of the \u200belection, perceiving it\u2062 as a maneuver\u2064 by\u200c McConnell to \u200cmaintain influence over the party even in his absence. The situation is \u200dcomplicated by \u2064Thune\u2019s historically fraught relationship\u200d with former President Trump, which\u200d poses challenges for his candidacy. In contrast, Senator Ron\u2064 Johnson\u2062 has openly endorsed Scott, positioning him as a candidate aligned with\u2064 the more conservative factions within the party. Critics of the leadership transition accuse McConnell \u2064of orchestrating the election to \u2063secure favorable outcomes for his \u200bpreferred candidates, revealing\u2064 underlying divisions within the Republican Party \u2062as it \u2064attempts to unify after recent victories.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A little over a week after a red wave election rolled Republicans back in control of the Senate, an internal election awaits Wednesday morning to determine who will lead the newly minted majority.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The rapid-fire leadership election, churning up infighting just days after big electoral victories, is the work of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/member\/mitch-mcconnell\/M000355\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.republicanleader.senate.gov\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">center of power<\/a> in the Senate Republican Conference for nearly 20 years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Outrageous Violation&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>McConnell announced in February he would step down as Republican leader at the end of the year, closing out his time as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-conservatives-quietly-outmaneuvered-weakened-mcconnell-on-ukraine\/\" title=\"Conservatives quietly outsmarted weakened McConnell on Ukraine.\">long-serving party leader<\/a> in the history of the Senate. The 82-year-old Kentucky Republican, who served as majority leader from 2015 to 2021, exits the leadership post with one more power grab, one of his sharpest critics says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He may be giving up the leadership position but I think he wants to maintain control,&rdquo; Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Tuesday afternoon on the &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/426-the-vicki-mckenna-show-27246267\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vicki McKenna Show<\/a>&rdquo; in Milwaukee and Madison.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>McConnell&rsquo;s departure and the shift in Senate control has sparked a three-way battle for Senate majority leader. In the running are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rickscott.senate.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. Rick Scott of Florida<\/a> and McConnell acolytes, Sens. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thune.senate.gov\/public\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Thune of South Dakota<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cornyn.senate.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Cornyn of Texas<\/a> &mdash; the latter two establishment Republicans and consummate yes men to their mentor McConnell. Thune, Senate Republican whip, appears to hold the edge in the election, but he&rsquo;s had a rocky relationship with Trump over the years &mdash; just like boss McConnell whose loathing of the president-elect is well known. Thune has <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/4979745-john-thune-donald-trump-senate-gop-leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">urged Trump <\/a>to stay out of the Senate&rsquo;s leadership contest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">John Thune is Mitch McConnell&#8217;s prot&eacute;g&eacute; &mdash; At the height of the 2024 election, with Republicans trying to win office all over the country, McConnell said he planned to fight the GOP more than Democrats after the election. Thune remained silent. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3wxtbu9fLR\">https:\/\/t.co\/3wxtbu9fLR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mollie (@MZHemingway) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MZHemingway\/status\/1854739735295451581?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 8, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Thune joined the chorus of swamp creatures on the right and left painting Trump as an insurrectionist for challenging the results of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections\/dp\/168451259X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rigged 2020 election.<\/a> &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/feb\/26\/john-thune-donald-trump-endorsement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thune said<\/a>.&nbsp;The South Dakota senator eventually came around this year and endorsed Trump&rsquo;s third presidential campaign.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Johnson was the first to voice his full-throated support for Scott, a fellow McConnell critic and &ldquo;extraordinary individual,&rdquo; the Wisconsin senator said. Johnson, Scott, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lee.senate.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> Sen. Mike Lee<\/a> (R-Utah) have served as a kind of&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2022\/dec\/25\/ron-johnson-mike-lee-rip-mitch-mcconnell-over-spen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conservative resistance front<\/a> against McConnell&rsquo;s establishment games and penchant for spending.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Johnson said it was an &ldquo;outrageous violation&rdquo; of McConnell&rsquo;s leadership position to call the swift election designed to limit member input before Wednesday&rsquo;s secret ballot election.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This is something McConnell cooked up to just ramrod through the election to get the election results he wanted &hellip;&rdquo; Johnson said. The leader&rsquo;s critics say the Kentucky senator wants to continue to control the levers of Senate Republican leadership.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some senators complained that Senate Republican Conference Chairman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barrasso.senate.gov\/public\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Barrasso, R-Wyo.<\/a>, announced, without discussion, the leadership election would be held the week after the presidential election. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;So, I&rsquo;m not happy with that. I think there are a number of people not happy,&rdquo; Johnson said, adding that he was not &ldquo;100 percent sure&rdquo; the vote would take place Wednesday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;Business as Usual or &hellip;&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>Senate Republicans held a candidate forum Tuesday evening, organized by Lee&rsquo;s steering committee, Johnson said. But some of the members weren&rsquo;t expected to be in attendance, instead opting to appear at an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/press\/release-senate-republican-leader-mitch-mcconnell-to-receive-2024-aei-irving-kristol-award\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">American Enterprise Institute dinner honoring McConnell<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Fox News Digital <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/rick-scott-gains-new-senate-endorsements-out-candidate-forum-eve-leader-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> Tuesday night that Scott had picked up a couple more endorsements at the candidate forum. Senators told the news outlet that the event allowed for a wide-ranging discussion with the candidates. Lee threw his support behind Scott, as did <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackburn.senate.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. Marsha Blackburn <\/a>of Tennessee, Fox News reported.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Thune told reporters that he thought his colleagues asked &ldquo;lots of good questions.&rdquo; He resisted talking about where he thought his support stood, saying, &ldquo;You never know until the voters vote.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cornyn, meanwhile, sent out a Dear Colleague letter on Tuesday, pledging to fix a dysfunctional Senate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no secret that the Senate has not functioned as it should for some time,&rdquo; Cornyn wrote in the <a href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/2024\/11\/12\/senate-house-republicans-gear-up-for-internal-elections-this-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> obtained by CQ Roll Call.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday afternoon, Johnson said it seemed everything was &ldquo;up in the air,&rdquo; but being driven, per usual, by McConnell&rsquo;s preferences. He thought Thune was the frontrunner because &ldquo;McConnell maintains more control than he should not being majority leader.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see how this plays out. I really can&rsquo;t predict it,&rdquo; the senator said.<\/p>\n<p>He lobbied again for Scott.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And so what this vote for leadership really is, is business as usual or a businessperson&rsquo;s approach&rdquo; to leadership, the senator said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">award-winning investigative reporter<\/a> and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week after a red wave election, Senate Republicans face a leadership vote<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2368320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-13-at-12.47.10-AM-e1731499887274.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[34365,5894,44923],"class_list":["post-2368319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-mitch-mcconnell","tag-politics","tag-power-grab"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Screenshot-2024-11-13-at-12.47.10-AM-e1731499887274.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368319","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\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2368319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2368323,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2368319\/revisions\/2368323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2368319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2368319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2368319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}