Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is taking heat online after defending his decision to endorse former President Donald Trump’s reelection. McConnell justified the decision by alleging that “even if [he] had chosen to get involved in the presidential election,” his influence would be limited.
McConnell’s comments came during a Sunday interview with Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, who pressed the top Senate Republican on his past comments in which he said he would support whoever the Republican nominee was in 2024.
“I said yes, because the voters of my party across the country have made a decision,” McConnell said of his past remarks. “As the Republican leader of the Senate, obviously, I’m going to support the nominee of our party.”
Brennan went on to outline policy differences between McConnell and the Trump administration, including on Ukraine, arguing at one point that his “worldview seems more aligned with Joe Biden when it comes to American leadership.”
“The issue is, what kind of influence—even if I had chosen to get involved in the presidential election—what kind of influence would I have had?” McConnell said, prompting immediate pushback from Brennan.
“You’re one of the most powerful Republicans,” she countered.
“I’m the Republican leader of the Senate,” McConnell replied. “What we do here is try to make law, I like us to be in the majority.”
He added that he has several differences with the Biden administration, including that he would not have withdrawn from Afghanistan nor submitted multiple expensive defense spending bills.
“I have got plenty of differences with the current administration,” McConnell said. “Whether I will have differences with the next administration remains to be seen. I know what I think. And it doesn’t make any difference what the outcome of the presidential election is. I’m going to be focusing on this remainder of my time in the Senate.”
He stressed that his focus will remain on the Senate—not the presidential race—but said he would speak out against any president “advocating things that I think are not good for America.”
“What I care about is, what does the person who actually gets elected ultimately do?” he added.
McConnell’s affirmation of his endorsement of Trump—despite the pair’s past bitter split in the wake of McConnell disavowing Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election—is coming under fire online from critics who view the comments as a tepid “cop-out.”
“Yeah, the highest ranking Republican in the Senate has no sway. What a pathetic cop-out and a tribute to cynical transactionalism,” commented journalist David Corn.
“Learned helplessness,” quipped another writer.
“Craven and transactional, McConnell takes shelter by claiming helplessness in the face of populist ignorance as he attempts to squeeze a few more years out of the Senate,” bashed The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols. “A pathetic end to a self-serving career.”
“Mitch McConnell displays timidity when questioned about his support for Trump’, particularly in light of Trump’s calls for a dictatorship,” slammed another X account, referencing Trump’s comment that he would only be a dictator on “day one.”
“‘As my parties leader in the Senate, I a[m] powerless’ is one hell of an admission,” wrote another user.
“The second most powerful Republican elected official believes he is powerless against Trump,” concluded someone else. “That is cowardice, plain and simple.”
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