It's Monday, October 25, and Day 254 since Justice Antonin Scalia died and Mitch McConnell decided no nominee would get any Senate attention: No meetings, no hearings, no votes. It's also Day 223 since Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama to fill that vacancy.
So where's Mitch McConnell these days? Has anybody heard from him? What does he think about Donald Trump dragging down the Senate with him? Apparently not much.
On the few occasions when the Republican leader has appeared publicly in his home state of Kentucky this month, he’s either avoided answering reporters’ questions, or explicitly refused to address the topic he acknowledged was on everyone’s mind: His party’s presidential nominee.
At a local Chamber of Commerce event in Danville, McConnell twice instructed the crowd not to ask him about the presidential race “even though that’s what I know you all wanted me to talk about.”
At an earlier event in Pikeville, McConnell refused to answer a reporter’s question about Trump not paying any taxes.
Most recently, on Friday, McConnell said nothing about Trump as he introduced fellow GOP Sen. Joni Ernst for a speech at the University of Louisville. Then McConnell evaded reporters’ questions as he left the event.
McConnell’s silence is especially notable in light of Trump’s recent complaints that the election is rigged and he might not ultimately accept the results. Despite a lifetime in public service, McConnell has offered no reaction, passing up the opportunity to defend the nation’s democratic institutions.
Apparently, McConnell has just decided to sit this one out, maybe figuring that he can make up this year's losses in 2018, when the Senate map favors Republicans. Maybe he's taking the advice of other Republicans who say that his "neutrality gives his caucus maximum flexibility to adopt whatever position on Trump best reflects their own states and their own political situations."
That's what passes for leadership in the GOP, apparently: stand by while your party is trashed. While your country is trashed. While the whole foundation upon which the institution he supposedly leads was built is trashed.
Not that anyone should be surprised about that—not if they've been paying attention to McConnell's actions. This is a man who has no qualms about crippling the Supreme Court. If he's content to do that, he's content to see all the rest of our institutions burn down around him.