McConnell sets himself up as Trump wingman
It’s not quite “TrumpMcConnell 2020,” but it mightas well be.
As he runs for re-election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is positioning himself as the president’s wingman, his trusted right hand in Congress, transformed from a behindthe-scenes player into a prominent — if sometimes reviled — Republican like none other besides Donald Trumphimself.
“In Washington, President Trump and I are making America great again!” he declared at a rally.
Other than Democrat Nancy Pelosi — and recently Alexandria OcasioCortez — no current politician has so quickly become such a high-profile object of partisan scorn. Mr. McConnell was heckled last weekend at his home state’s annual political picnic, and protesters outside his Louisville house hurled so many profanities that Twitter temporarily shut down his account for posting videoof them online.
He revels in the nickname he’s given himself — the “Grim Reaper,” bragging that he’s burying the House Democrats’ agenda — though he seems stung by one lobbed by opponents: “Moscow Mitch.”
But the Democrats’ agenda includes gun legislation to require background checks that Mr. Trump now wants to consider, forcing Mr. McConnell to adjust his earlier refusal to do so. The Senate leader has been here before, pushing ahead with a Trump priority that’s unpopular with most Republicans. But this will test both his relationship with the president and his grip on the GOP majority.
All while he’s campaigning to keep his job.
Mr. McConnell is even more dependent on Mr. Trump’s popularity in Kentucky than on his own, a different political landscape from the one he faced in 2014.
“They need each other,” says longtime McConnell adviser Scott Jennings.
Thenew McConnell strategy shows just how far Mr. Trump has transformed the GOP, turning a banker’s-collar-and-cufflinks conservative into a “Fake News!” shoutingsenator.
Mr.McConnell and his allies have taken on Mr. Trump’s style, lashing out at media and political opponents. When campaign volunteers came under criticism for appearing to choke a cardboard cutout of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez at the picnic in a photo circulated online, McConnell allies said the high schoolers were being treated unfairly by opponentstrying to shame them.
The shift in Mr. McConnell’s strategy is not lost on Democrat Amy McGrath, the former fighter pilot and the leading Democrat hoping to win the party’s nominationto challenge him next fall,her campaign said.
Ms. McGrath is telling Kentuckians that Mr. McConnell is part of the problem, a long-serving leader who has stood in the way of gun safety, health care and other legislation for years, and hardly the one to fulfill Mr. Trump’s promises. She is expected to attract plenty of fundraising dollars and volunteers in a race that could easily approach $100 million, second only to the presidential contest.
“It almost feels like we have a mini presidential campaign going on here,” Mr. Jennings said.
Kentucky remains a GOP stronghold, and Mr. Trump is extraordinarily popular,which is part of the reason Mr. McConnell is tying his own political future to the president. But it’s unclear if his is the right strategy for the times.