McConnell: GOP will push Biden to center if it wins control of Congress
By: Mark Moore (New York Post)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Republicans will force President Biden to abandon his progressive agenda and move toward the center — if they gain control of Congress this November, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday.
"Let me put it this way, Biden ran as a moderate. If I'm the majority leader in the Senate, and Kevin McCarthy's the speaker of the House, we'll make sure Joe Biden is a moderate," McConnell said on "Fox News Sunday," referring to if the GOP sweeps the midterm elections.
McConnell (R-Ky.) then took a jab at the Biden administration, saying it "just can't seem to get their act together on the economy," leading to poor polling numbers for Biden and increasing the opportunity for Republicans to win majorities.
"The economy, the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the domestic energy issue we've already been discussing, crime, problems in public education, this administration has really got its hands full and I think they're headed toward a pretty good beating in the fall election," McConnell said.
"Well, our agenda next year, if we're fortunate enough to be in the majority, will be focused on exactly what you and I have been talking about, crime, education, beefing up the defense of our country," he told host Dana Perino.
McConnell was asked what he thought was behind Biden's faltering job approval and favorability ratings that have recently hit the lowest of his presidency.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed that the GOP will force Biden to be more moderate if Republicans gain the majority in Congress.AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, FileMcConnell said in an interview that he and Rep. Kevin McCarthy will make sure Biden becomes a moderate.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, file)
"I like the president personally. It's pretty clear to me that personality is, in my view, not what's driving his unpopularity. I think it's the policies they've been pursuing," McConnell said.
Other congressional Republicans expressed similar sentiments as McConnell, indicating that Biden could face a dramatically different second half of his first term.
"If Joe Biden is confronted with a Republican majority in both chambers, I've always thought that the onus is really on him. Because it will be a test of just how pragmatic and transactional he can be. … So, I think the test is really on him," Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told The Hill.
Sen. John Thune said Biden is "going to have to move to the middle" with a Republican-controlled House and Senate.Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said Biden, if confronted by a Republican-controlled Congress, would have to adjust his political stance.
"If we were to get the majority back … I think he's going to have to move to the middle," Thune, the No. 2 in the Senate, told The Hill.
Along with potential confrontations over the administration's policies, fireworks could erupt over whether a Republican-controlled Senate would hold hearings for a second Biden nominee on the Supreme Court after the recent contentious hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
She was confirmed in a 53-47 vote with three GOP senators voting for her — Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — but hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee were intense as she was grilled on her sentencing in child porn cases, her views of critical race theory and her judicial philosophy.
McConnell predicted that Democrats are "headed toward a pretty good beating in the fall election."Tom Williams/Congressional Quarterly via ZUMA Press
McConnell, in an interview last week, was asked if he would hold hearings for a Biden nominee if the GOP was a majority.
"Most hypotheticals I don't answer. And that whole question puts the cart before the horse," McConnell told Axios. "We're hoping to get into the majority as a result of this year's election."
He said he would work with Biden if "he's willing to be a moderate."
"But with regard to personnel and the other things that we're involved in, I'm not going to signal how we're going to approach it," he added.
Who is online
210 visitors