{"id":40112,"date":"2017-08-11T05:52:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T05:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=40112"},"modified":"2017-08-11T05:52:52","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T05:52:52","slug":"trump-attacks-mcconnell-bring-rebukes-fellow-republicans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/trump-attacks-mcconnell-bring-rebukes-fellow-republicans.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump attacks on McConnell bring rebukes from fellow Republicans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump attacks on McConnell bring rebukes from fellow Republicans<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Trump attacks on McConnell bring rebukes from fellow Republicans:- President Trump aimed a fresh barrage of criticism at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday, escalating an extraordinary fight with a key Republican leader that could undermine the party\u2019s ability to regroup and pass shared legislative priorities this fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

In demeaning tweets and public statements, Trump blamed McConnell (Ky.), who remains popular among GOP senators, for the party\u2019s inability to muscle through an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. The president also urged McConnell to \u201cget back to work\u201d on that and other campaign promises, including cutting taxes and spurring new infrastructure spending.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters Thursday afternoon, Trump declined to say whether McConnell should resign but said they should ask the question again if the Senate leader doesn\u2019t deliver on the president\u2019s leading priorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Declaring that he was \u201cvery disappointed in Mitch,\u201d Trump said he was particularly miffed by a Senate vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act that failed by a single vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor a thing like that to happen is a disgrace, and frankly it shouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump associates said the attacks, which began Wednesday night and resumed Thursday, were intended to shore up Trump\u2019s outside-the-Beltway populist credentials and would resonate with core supporters frustrated by a lack of progress in Washington.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the tweets were quickly met with public and private defenses of McConnell \u2014 and rebukes of Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), tweeted: \u201c@SenateMajLdr has been the best leader we\u2019ve had in my time in the Senate, through very tough challenges. I fully support him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), a Trump adviser, said on Fox News Channel that the president bears some responsibility for the Republican failure on the health-care legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the president can\u2019t dissociate himself from this,\u201d Gingrich said. Trump \u201cis part of the leadership team. He is not an observer sitting up in the stands. He is on the field. It was a collective failure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Even some Republicans close to the president suggested that the attacks on McConnell would hurt him on Capitol Hill, where relations with GOP leaders have seriously frayed as Trump\u2019s agenda has stalled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYelling at his Senate quarterback isn\u2019t going to help him achieve these wins,\u201d said one GOP strategist close to the White House who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump, who is on a working vacation at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J., remains bitter about the collapse of Republican efforts to repeal and replace former president Barack Obama\u2019s health-care law, a pledge the party has made since 2010 and a marquee campaign promise for Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn\u2019t get it done,\u201d Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. \u201cMust Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few hours later, the president took to Twitter again, writing: \u201cMitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing. You can do it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The tweets came in the wake of McConnell\u2019s suggestion earlier in the week that Trump\u2019s lack of political experience had led to \u201cexcessive expectations\u201d for passing major legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The president has faced heavy criticism for the fate of the health-care legislation. While he repeatedly called on lawmakers to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, he did relatively little to help develop \u2014 or sell \u2014 their replacement plans to the public at a time when polls showed the effort was highly unpopular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s attacks this week come as lawmakers are poised to try to tackle other shared but challenging priorities when they return from their August recess. Besides Trump\u2019s leading agenda items, they also are faced with trying to craft a budget and raise the nation\u2019s debt ceiling.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDiscerning a particular strategy or goal from these tweets is hard,\u201d said Doug Heye, a former Republican National Committee communications director and a former Capitol Hill staff member. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t help enact any part of his agenda, and it sends a further troubling sign to Capitol Hill Republicans already wary of the White House.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Heye said that with Trump\u2019s job-approval numbers declining among the Republican base, \u201cnow is the time to build support within the party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

White House aides said Trump has a general frustration with McConnell that extends beyond the health-care debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the president\u2019s tweets,\u201d White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday. \u201cObviously, there\u2019s some frustration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McConnell has been one of the most steadfast supporters of Trump\u2019s agenda in Congress, and, at least publicly, Trump has had a smoother relationship with McConnell than he has with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and other congressional leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

In April, McConnell orchestrated the confirmation of Neil M. Gorsuch, Trump\u2019s Supreme Court pick, changing the Senate rules so that Democrats could not block the nomination. The Gorsuch confirmation is Trump\u2019s largest victory on Capitol Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

McConnell\u2019s wife, Elaine Chao, another prominent Washington figure, serves in Trump\u2019s Cabinet as transportation secretary. Trump said Thursday that Chao \u201cis doing a very good job.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In his remarks Monday to the Rotary Club in Florence, Ky., McConnell said, \u201cOur new president had, of course, not been in this line of work before.\u201d He added, \u201cI think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sanders said that Trump and McConnell spoke by phone Wednesday, a conversation in which Trump made clear that he wants to continue to press for passage of a health-care bill. The same day, Trump took his first shot at McConnell on Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSenator Mitch McConnell said I had \u2018excessive expectations,\u2019 but I don\u2019t think so,\u201d the president wrote. \u201cAfter 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In another sign of frayed relations between Trump and Republican senators, one of the president\u2019s largest political benefactors is providing a $300,000 contribution to a super PAC that aims to unseat Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz), who has been critical of Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Politico first reported that Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire heavily involved in Trump\u2019s political ascendancy, is making a donation to a group supporting former Arizona state senator Kelli Ward, who is challenging Flake in a Republican primary next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ward emailed a fundraising pitch to supporters Thursday, calling out McConnell for \u201cfinger-pointing at President Trump\u201d instead of working to pass a GOP health-care plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Flake, meanwhile, defended McConnell, saying that the leader \u201chas a tough job and I think he does it well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the public criticism, Trump and McConnell have been in frequent contact, usually by telephone, to discuss legislative strategy, aides said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Privately, senior GOP congressional aides across Capitol Hill have said it\u2019s Trump and his team \u2014 not McConnell \u2014 who deserve the blame for the collapse of the GOP\u2019s health-care plan. The aides gripe that Trump seriously damaged relationships with key Republican senators over the months-long debacle.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one point this summer, Trump was flanked at a White House meeting by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who both voted against the health-care measure. At the mid-July meeting, it was Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) seated next to Trump. The president called him out with cameras rolling for wavering on the health-care bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, he wants to remain a senator, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d Trump said as Heller laughed uncomfortably.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heller ultimately voted for the bill, but the exchange with Trump is a scene that Democratic aides have vowed will appear prominently in future campaign attack ads against the senator, who is the most vulnerable Republican facing reelection next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s long-standing feud with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn\u2019t helped the overall dynamic either. The senator voted against the health-care plan in a closely watched late-night vote \u2014 even after Trump made a direct last-minute appeal by phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has had a contentious relationship with McConnell, said Thursday that he was sympathetic to Trump in the wake of the health-care bill\u2019s failure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump is at his desk with a pen ready to sign what Congress was going to send him and we didn\u2019t,\u201d Johnson said in an interview on CNN. \u201cAnd I completely feel his frustration. I\u2019m every bit as frustrated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week marked Trump\u2019s first attacks against McConnell. Throughout the 2016 campaign, while other GOP lawmakers wavered in their support of Trump, McConnell never did. He criticized some of Trump\u2019s more outlandish statements, but his critiques usually were muted, and he preferred to deliver them in private.<\/span><\/p>\n

So when Trump lashed out at fellow Republicans, it was directed mostly at Ryan and McCain, who frequently criticized Trump in public. Trump even threatened to support primary opponents running against Ryan and McCain last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, inside the White House, Trump has a collection of advisers who have had antagonistic relationships with McConnell and Senate GOP leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephen K. Bannon, Trump\u2019s chief strategist, came from Breitbart, a news organization that regularly antagonized McConnell\u2019s leadership team. Stephen Miller, chief policy adviser to Trump, was not considered an ally to the Senate leader\u2019s staff when Miller was a top adviser to Jeff Sessions (Ala.) in the Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, one of Trump\u2019s top legislative affairs advisers is Paul Teller, who served as Sen. Ted Cruz\u2019s top aide during a period when the Texas Republican accused McConnell of lying about trade legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Mick Mulvaney (S.C.), Trump\u2019s budget director, was a constant critic of the Senate during his three terms in the House, regularly opposing fiscal compromise deals that McConnell brokered with the Obama White House.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/trump-steps-up-attacks-on-mcconnell-for-failure-on-health-care-reform\/2017\/08\/10\/a3d49d1e-7dbf-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.e1d0bb5db33a<\/span><\/p>\n

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