Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stirred up a hornet’s nest at the White House on Monday when delivering a speech to a Rotary Group meeting back home in Kentucky. In a blatant attempt to deflect some of the rightful criticism being aimed at him and the GOP majority in Congress for their failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, McConnell said that President Trump was at least partially to blame for the negative perceptions. McConnell said that Trump, being new to the game of politics, came into office with “excessive expectations” about the legislative process and unrealistic goals that did not fit the “complexity of legislating” something as daunting as healthcare reform.
According to reports, President Trump did not take kindly to McConnell’s shameful attempt to pass the blame onto the White House and let him know in an irate phone call on Tuesday. He later thrashed McConnell on Twitter:
“Senator Mitch McConnell said I had ‘excessive expectations,’ but I don’t think so,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?”
He followed that up Thursday with a similar remark. “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done? Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!”
As harsh as Trump’s words were in public, Fox News reported that their private phone call was filled with even more tension:
During the approximately 10-minute phone call, the source said, the president curtly told McConnell he did not appreciate the criticism and still expects Republican leaders to push for repealing ObamaCare, even though that has largely been shelved for now.
The source added that Trump also told McConnell he is unhappy with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who cast a decisive vote against repealing ObamaCare without a replacement in place. McCain, who is battling brain cancer, also slammed the president’s aggressive rhetoric on North Korea this week.
The source said the president mused to McConnell that he does not understand why the majority leader is allowing McCain to keep his powerful chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee after bucking the party.
Well, the answer to that last one is simple enough: Mitch McConnell is NOT on your side, Mr. President.
And that’s becoming all too clear as we head into the final months of 2017. For all of the talk about uniting the party back in January, the Republican establishment is still determined to fight the Trump revolution every step of the way. Only now are the cracks beginning to appear publicly as Trump’s legislative agenda (which, as you’ll recall, is supposed to be the GOP’s agenda as well) stalls on Capitol Hill. Republicans had a historic opportunity to take the ball and run with it, thanks to a one-of-a-kind political figure in Donald Trump. So far, they’ve blown it.
And now they’re saying it’s TRUMP’S fault for expecting too much, too soon?
Enjoy the rest of your time in office, guys. Because if that’s the message you’re running on next time around, you won’t be there for long.
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