Though the Biden border disaster has, so far, mainly led to anger and outrage directed the way of his administration, it’s not just the left that has been put on blast by American outrage over the situation. Namely, the RINOs who supported the Schumer-Lankford border “deal” were put on blast by the MAGA base for supporting the horrible surrender to the left’s immigration priorities.
Among those negatively impacted was Sen. Mitch McConnell. Though he ultimately encouraged Republicans not to back the deal, he originally was for it, and thus has found himself squarely in the sights of conservatives furious about that.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas emphasized that general disdain for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after the narrowly averted legislative disaster during a recent press conference. That came when the Texas senator was asked if it is time for McConnell, who is 82 years old, to step down. Cruz answered affirmatively, saying, “I think it is.”
Explaining why he is opposed to Sen. McConnell’s continued leadership, Sen. Cruz said that it is high time GOP voters have someone in office who actively fights for their interests. “Everyone here also supported a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November. I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans,” he said.
Sen. Cruz then opined on what went wrong in 2022 and how that sparked his opposition to McConnell’s continued leadership, saying, “It was right after a very disappointing election, 2022. The wind was at our back. It should have been a phenomenal Republican election year. Republicans should have won the Senate. We should have won a big majority in the House. Instead, we lost a seat in the Senate. And we barely got a majority in the House,”
As Sen. Cruz went on to note, such a poor showing in any normal company or organization would have meant a leadership shake-up: “I stood up and said, ‘Look, in any ordinary organization, when you are faced with failure, you’re running a business and you lose $50 million, you don’t just say hey, everything’s great. Let’s keep doing it. Now you sit down and say, What are we doing wrong?‘”
Continuing, he explained what he saw as being the big problem with McConnell’s leadership style, saying, “At that meeting, I turned to Mitch McConnell then and I said, ‘Look, we spent the last two years with a group, a handful of Republicans joining with Democrats to pass the Democrat agenda. Let’s admit, maybe that’s a good idea. I don’t think it is. But someone could make the argument that’s a good idea. I’ll tell you, it’s one sided. You know who doesn’t do that? The Democrats.“
And, giving an example of Sen. McConnell’s failed leadership and how that negatively impacted GOP voters, he said, “In 2017 and 2018 when we had a Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican House, not one single time, did a group of Democrats join with Republicans to pass the Republican agenda. So we’re the only ones who do it.”
Continuing, he emphasized that the GOP kept backing down under McConnell when it should have been fighting back, saying, “But I turned to Mitch and I said, Is there anything — what are we willing to fight on? What are you willing to fight off? Is there anything you’re willing to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘We will fight,’ and he refused to answer that question now and that’s why we’re in this mess.”
Watch Sen. Cruz here:
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