Outgoing Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell is facing backlash for how he’s handling the choosing of a new Senate leader.
He’s reportedly scheduled a closed-door meeting for this Wednesday, during which time Senate Republicans will have the option of choosing between Sens. John Thune, John Cornyn, and Rick Scott.
But one problem, according to Sen. Ron Johnson, is that he and his colleagues need more time to weigh their upcoming decision.
“I’m hoping it gets delayed,” he told Breitbart News in an interview. “I mean, again, this is a McConnell move. It’s grotesque. We’re not even going to be back in for 24 hours. We [GOP senators] spoke about this. ”
“We were going to break this up. We all agreed we wanted to elect a leader before Thanksgiving — we didn’t have to do it within less than 24 hours when we return. That’s sick,” he added.
When pressed as to why holding the vote so soon after Election Day is a problem, Johnson said that he and his colleagues haven’t had enough time to fully question the three candidates.
“Because we haven’t even had a candidate forum, where we have all three candidates up there — we can pepper them with questions, we can see how they react,” he said. “There have been some one-on-one meetings. But again, we should have this in…a debate forum.”
“Let’s get up there, let’s spend hours peppering these guys with, ‘How are you going to handle this situation? What are you going to do with this? What are your top priorities?’ We need to hear that,” he added.
Another problem, according to other critics, is McConnell’s decision to hold the vote behind closed doors and therefore keep everybody’s vote secret.
“You should own it. Whatever it is, you should own it. And you should be able to explain yourself as to why you thought that was the best person,” Republican National Committee Chair Lara Trump said earlier this week. “It’d probably go a long way for the American people to have a little more transparency. That’s all we want, by the way.”
“With Donald Trump, with whoever it is, we want our leaders to be transparent. We want you to tell us the truth, and we want you to tell us what you’re doing behind the scenes on our behalf, because we sent you there as our representatives, so we should know how it is they’re voting,” she added.
RNC Chair Lara Trump blasts Senate Republicans for hiding their vote for Majority Leader behind secret ballot:
“You should own it. You should be able to explain yourself… We want our leaders to be transparent. We want you to tell us what you’re doing behind the scenes” pic.twitter.com/iLWNLJsjim
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 11, 2024
Former Trump 2016 campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has meanwhile called for both the ballot to be open and for the vote to be delayed long enough for President-elect Donald Trump to have his say.
“This is a secret ballot — it should be an open ballot,” he said on Newsmax earlier this week. “I think that everybody in America should know who’s voting for whom for the Senate majority leadership.”
“And what I really think should happen is that they should push this vote back past Wednesday morning, so Donald Trump has an opportunity to address the conference and have the U.S. senators understand what exactly Donald Trump wants, which is that we wants a partner in the U.S. Senate, not someone who’s going to be an obstacle,” he added.
Here’s my take on the Senate Majority Leader race. Above all else, I believe they should delay the vote so that Pres @realDonaldTrump may address the GOP Conference AND they should swap the secret ballot for a public vote.
Do you agree? Which candidate will support MAGA more? pic.twitter.com/GHUFmXupqn
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) November 12, 2024
As for who deserves the role of Senate GOP leader, the consensus among MAGA Republicans is that Scott is most deserving of this role. Why? Because the other two candidates are allegedly no good.
“Two of the three candidates hate Trump and what he ran on,” conservative commentator Tucker Carlson tweeted last weekend. “One of them, John Cornyn, is an angry liberal whose politics are indistinguishable from Liz Cheney’s.”
“The election is Wednesday, it’s by secret ballot, and it will determine whether or not the new administration succeeds. Rick Scott of Florida is the only candidate who agrees with Donald Trump. Call your senator and demand a public endorsement of Rick Scott. Don’t let McConnell get away with it again,” he added.
Carlson’s tweet was later retweeted by Johnson:
President Trump needs Rick Scott as Majority Leader to shepherd his bold agenda through the U.S. Senate! https://t.co/Odt462SYJP
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) November 9, 2024
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