McConnell is ‘floundering’ after sucking up to Trump — and is now ‘out of touch’ with his own party: conservative columnist

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been drawing a great deal of criticism for his recent assertion that during the coronavirus pandemic, individual states that are suffering financially should file for bankruptcy — and that he has no desire to bail out “blue states.” Although much of that criticism has been coming from liberals and progressives, some people on the right have been lambasting McConnell as well — including Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin.

In a scathing column headlined, “Mitch McConnell Isn’t a Stable Genius Either,” the Never Trump conservative asserts, “In rejecting the plea of governors and mayors for additional funding to make up for huge expenditures and revenue shortfalls stemming from the coronavirus, McConnell made himself a target.”

Rubin goes on to say, “Predictably, McConnell’s intention to stiff state and local workers —  who are at risk of getting laid off —  and essential services did not go down well with his own members.” And Rubin points to Sen. Mike Brian of Indiana and Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana as two hardcore Republicans who, according to CNN, are open to funding state and local governments that are struggling.

McConnell, Rubin writes, has been “floundering” and faces an aggressive opponent in Democrat Amy McGrath — who is competing for a chance to run against McConnell in the general election.

“There is a tendency in the mainstream media to attribute nearly unlimited political prowess to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY),” Rubin writes. “Certainly, his hardline gamesmanship has worked to fill the courts — and two slots on the Supreme Court — with conservative judges. Beyond that? He failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he routinely gets boxed about the ears by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), as she did again in achieving — with a strong assist from Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer — many, but not all, of Democrats’ aims in the coronavirus relief package passed last week.”

Even President Donald Trump, Rubin notes, appears to be more open to helping individual states than McConnell.

“McConnell has tied himself to Trump’s mast, but on this one, the president may not even agree with him,” Rubin observes. “Trump, apparently, is open to helping the states…. In any event, McConnell can read the polls — Trump is sinking, his Senate majority is at risk, he has a well-financed challenger in Amy McGrath. Given all that, it’s an odd strategy to declare you have no interest in bringing home relief to — as (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi describes them — ‘health care workers and public hospitals and the rest, police and fire, emergency services folks, first responders, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers, transit workers who enable people, the essential workers to get to work.’”

McConnell has been serving in the U.S. Senate since the 1980s, and Rubin concludes her column by asserting, “Perhaps McConnell has been in Washington too long and has gotten badly out of touch — even with Republicans.”