McConnell fails to issue statement defending Trump, stoking GOP civil war

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday August 09, 2022 · 11:23 AM PDT

2022/08/09 · 11:23

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 04: U.S. President Donald Trump (R) greets Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after delivering his State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives on February 04, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump delivered his third State of the Union to the nation the night before the U.S. Senate is set to vote in his impeachment trial. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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The FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Florida home has the MAGA GOP in an uproar, with his closest lackeys coming just short of demanding Attorney General Merrick Garland’s head on a pike.

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened Garland with never-ending investigations and even former Vice President Mike Pence had to weigh in, condemning the raid. Not that he’ll get any MAGA brownie points for that—he called Trump the “former” president.

But there’s one prominent Republican from whom we’ve heard just crickets. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who definitely has serious concerns about trying to regain the Senate majority with the likes of Trump’s favorite candidates, is remaining mum. As is the rest of his leadership team, Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), and Policy Chair Roy Blunt (R-MO). McConnell, though his office, has simply “declined to comment” on the raid thus far.

That hasn’t gone unnoticed in MAGAland.

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Monday night, Fox News hosts Mark Levin and Sean Hannity were in a lather about the whole situation, as Media Matters documents. “[E]verybody pretty much knows that Donald Trump is going to run in the Republican primary for president of the United States,” Levin fumed. “And so you have a sitting president who wants to run against him and his attorney general acting like this.”

“The FBI is corrupt,” Levin ranted on. “This guy, Garland, goes after parents. He goes after Republican state legislatures. He goes after states because he disagrees with her abortion positions. He doesn’t do a damn thing to protect the border, which is compelled by the Constitution. Nothing.” Okay, but parents? Is that how they’re going to defend Trump?

Anyway, Levin wasn’t finished. “This is the worst attack on this republic in modern history, period. And it’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on everybody who supports him.” And who isn’t among that group? Yup, Mitch McConnell.

“It’s an attack on anybody who dares to raise serious questions about Washington, D.C., and the establishment in both parties. I haven’t heard a damn thing from the Republican leadership in the Senate, have you? Not one of those guys has put out a statement because they’re weak. That’s why.”

One leadership guy weighed in, though: Sen. Rick Scott, the Florida Republican leading the GOP’s 2022 Senate campaign.

The @FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago is incredibly concerning, especially given the Biden admin’s history of going after parents & other political opponents. This is 3rd World country stuff.

We need answers NOW. The FBI must explain what they were doing today & why.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) August 9, 2022

Scott relishes tangling with McConnell. He has been all year, starting with that fascist, dystopian manifesto he put out as the GOP’s 2022 platform. McConnell's intentions to hew to a disciplined message on the Biden administration and the economy has no appeal for Scott or the whole MAGA party—i.e., the entire rest of the GOP—and Scott is making that very clear.

McConnell’s path back to Senate leadership is going to be a very bumpy one, since he is in the eye of the Republican civil war. It’s our job to help exploit that to ensure that the path gets cut off completely with an expanded Democratic Senate majority.