That’s what the LA Times is reporting….
A lot of us wondered how long this would take…..
There is only 3 weeks left to jump ship….
Actually?
People are ALREADY voting, eh?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, one of Trump’s most loyal lieutenants, abruptly jumped off the Trump train this week to stake out a politically — and medically — safer position on the coronavirus crisis that is Trump’s biggest political liability.
McConnell said at a news conference Thursday in Kentucky that he had not been at the White House for more than a month because he did not think its safety standards were stringent enough.
“My impression was that their approach to how to handle this is different from mine and what I suggested that we do in the Senate, which is to wear a mask and practice social distancing,” said McConnell, who is 78 and in an expensive fight for reelection this year.
Veteran Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, in his pitch for an endorsement from the Houston Chronicle, scolded Trump for downplaying the dangers of the coronavirus. The paper, which had endorsed Cornyn in the past, ultimately opted to support Democrat MJ Hegar.
“I think Trump might cause us a tidal wave,” said one top Republican strategist and Trump supporter, who asked not to be named discussing internal party matters. “He is ankle weights in a pool on Senate candidates.”
The move away from Trump resembles the strategy Republicans followed in 2016, when many party leaders assumed he would lose, and in 1996, when the party’s nominee, Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, badly trailed President Clinton.
In both cases, the approach was to avoid directly criticizing the nominee for fear of alienating his loyalists, while appealing to voters to keep a Republican Congress to deny Democrats a “blank check.”…
For Republicans, fearful of a possible electoral disaster just weeks away, it has become safe at last to dis Donald Trump — or at least to distance themselves from him in unmistakably purposeful ways.
A barrage of barbed comments in recent days shows how markedly the calculus of fear has shifted in the GOP. For much of the past four years, Republican politicians were scared above all about incurring the wrath of the president and his supporters with any stray gesture or remark that he might regard as not sufficiently deferential. Now, several of them are evidently more scared of not being viewed by voters as sufficiently independent.
This is far from an insurrection. Republicans in the main aren’t outright repudiating Trump. But they are effectively rolling their eyes in exasperation with him, and especially his handling of the coronavirus pandemic…..
…
McConnell isn’t gonna help Trump on the stimulus….
He’s solely focuses on something that he can deliver that will last past Jan20, 2021….
The state of play: Senate Republicans, including McConnell, have largely been left out of the recent negotiating process between congressional Democrats and the White House.
- Even if Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were to strike a deal — and that’s a big if — there is little chance the Senate GOP would get on board with it.
- Complicating matters, Senate Republicans remain far apart on what they want as a conference. They also view Trump and Mnuchin as far more willing to give more to Pelosi than what they’re comfortable with — both numbers-wise and on policy.
The bottom line: McConnell doesn’t want to do anything to interrupt the only visible Republican win before the election in his chamber — the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court….
“This is far from an insurrection.”
There’s an understatement!
A few mealy mouthed vague self serving mouthing?
Mitch McConnell is afraid to go to the White House?So should anybody in their right mind.
John Cronyn “scolds” Trump for his coronavirus “policy.”Who in their right mind wouldn’t?
A few generic comments here and there?
No one would notice this except for these gutless cowards slavish servility in the past.
Color me distinctly unimpressed.
Political wire quoted Sen Thom Tillis as saying the best check on a Biden Presidency is a GOP Senate.
We’ll see if Trump tweets a response.
Lindsey Graham said blacks are free to go anywhere in South Carolina as long as they were conservative and not liberal.
What the hell??
Meant every word of it….