John “Barnie Fife” Boehner 2.0? Oops, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did it again.
McConnell folded up like a cheap lawn chair, agreeing on a deal with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to overcome a GOP filibuster on a procedural vote to temporarily raise the federal government’s $28.4 trillion debt limit to avoid the risk of a default, this month, and increase the debt ceiling by $430 billion to avoid a default until at least Dec. 3.
McConnell caves to Schumer…https://t.co/7QyUDUywcF
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) October 8, 2021
Enter, former President Donald Trump.
During a Thursday night appearance on Fox News’s “Hannity,” an angry Trump skewered McConnell, as reported by Fox News, for capitulating to Schumer, calling for his ouster as Minority Leader.
“The Republican Senate needs new leadership,” Trump told arch-supporter Sean Hannity.
Donald Trump calls for McConnell’s ouster after giving Dems debt ‘lifeline’: ‘Mitch is not the guy’ to lead https://t.co/h96H2Ton2y #FoxNews
— LivePDDave 🇺🇸 🚨 🥊 (@LivePDDave1) October 8, 2021
“Big mistake,” Trump said.
“Mitch is not the guy, not the right guy, he’s not doing the job. He gave [Schumer and the Democrats] a lifeline – it’s more than a lifeline; he gave them so much time to figure out what to do because they were in a big bind; they were unable to do anything.
“He had the weapon and he was able to use it. It’s a shame. That’s not a good thing that happened today. He made a big mistake.”
While 11 Republicans voted with the Democrats, Trump placed the blame squarely on McConnell. “It looked like a total surrender,” Trump told Hannity, as noted by Fox News.
The following 10 Republicans joined McConnell in the procedural vote:
- Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota
- Sens. Michael Rounds of South Dakota
- Susan Collins of Maine
- John Barrasso of Wyoming
- Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Shelby of Alabama
- John Cornyn of Texas, Rob Portman of Ohio
- Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia
- Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Yeah, I know — try to control your shock and amazement)
The cheap lawn chair McConnell has been the proverbial talk of the town — here’s a smattering.
McConnell’s Shift on Debt Ceiling Fights Puts GP in a Bind
Senate Reaches Formal Deal on Debt Limit but Not Everyone Is Happy
Senate Democrats Weigh in on Whether They Will Accept McConnell’s Offer
Later in the segment, Hannity asked Trump about the never-ending Biden Border Crisis™, which has seen hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens stream into the United States across the Rio Grande, a total “shock” [sarc], given Biden’s pandering campaign promises to all but place northbound ‘people movers’ and welcoming mariachi bands along the southern border. Trump answered:
“All they [had] to do was leave [the border] alone. “The wall was almost complete… [and] one thing you didn’t see was drugs. Drugs were at their lowest point – in particular fentanyl, which is a brutal drug. It was stopped, it was at a level we had not seen in a long time.”
Finally, several Senate Republicans were unhappy with McConnell’s Boehneresque fold, as well, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee.
“This is a complete capitulation,” Graham said. Lindsey 2.0 was right. This time, anyway.
Meanwhile, The Turtle™ crawls away.
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