Democrats seeking the presidency in 2020 are readying for battle with Donald Trump. But at this point they appear to be running against a different Republican: Mitch McConnell.
loomed large over Wednesday night’s first Democratic primary debate in Miami — and clearly flummoxed the presidential prospects when his name came up in questions from the debate moderators.On several occasions, contenders struggled to articulate a coherent strategy on how they would deal with McConnell if they were to win the presidency and he was still majority leader. Their proposals ranged from persuading senators to kill the filibuster to campaigning in red states.
“We have a lot of senators who are pursuing quixotic presidential campaigns and leaving it to everybody else to pull their weight in terms of winning the Senate. And we have a lot of potential Senate candidates who are pursuing quixotic presidential campaigns who I guess feel they’re too grand to be United States senators when they could probably win a seat,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse . “So yeah, I get pretty frustrated.
Rachel Maddow and Chuck Todd’s pointed questions about McConnell on Wednesday revealed how the self-proclaimed “grim reaper” of progressivism is already haunting the presidential race. McConnell is running for reelection himself as the primary roadblock to what he deems Democrats’ “socialist” agenda, reveling in the idea of blocking the legislation of a President Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.
“He is someone who has a gift of working with people both Democrats and Republicans from far left to far right,” said Sen. Tom Carper . “We’ll get things done.”McConnell’s “always going to play power politics and he’s always going to do what’s best for his contributors,” Brown said. The solution is “not going to be persuasiveness. Barack Obama, I guess, found that.”
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