Win McNamee/Getty Images
- Trump called for GOP House Minority leader Mitch McConnell to be removed from his position.
- It comes after McConnell cut a new deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.
- Trump previously called in October for McConnell to be ousted before the deal was done.
Former President Donald Trump called for Republicans to rebel against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and oust him from his leadership position as vengeance for brokering a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling.
Trump called McConnell a “broken old crow” and criticized him for working with Senate Democrats on the debt ceiling deal instead of using it as leverage to oppose President Joe Biden’s spending plans.
McConnell gave Democrats limited support in the Senate, allowing them to overcome to filibuster rule and use their own votes to lift the debt ceiling, a limit beyond which the US government is forbidden to borrow.
“Mitch McConnell is giving the Democrats victory on everything,” Trump said in a statement issued by his spokesperson Liz Harrington through Twitter on Sunday.
“What is wrong with this Broken Old Crow? He’s hurting the Republican Senators and the Republican Party. When will they vote him out of Leadership?
“He didn’t have the guts to play the Debt Ceiling card, which would have given the Republicans a complete victory on virtually everything. The Dems were ready to fold!”
—Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) December 13, 2021
McConnell and 13 other Republican senators on Thursday voted with every Senate Democrat to avoid a federal default on debt.
The move prompted fury from Trump who said it would allow Biden to pass his Build Back Better plan, a legislative package that would significantly increase federal spending on social-welfare and climate projects.
“”It’s like taking money and throwing it out the window, and Mitch McConnell could have killed it,” Trump told mark Davis, a Texas radio host, last week.
“What he’s done is unthinkable. He gave up the debt ceiling. That was the best negotiating tool that we had [to] kill this horrible bill.”
Trump had already called for McConnell to be ousted, in an October interview with Fox News, a suggestion that seemingly went unheeded.
That call was prompted by a shorter-term deal to suspend the debt ceiling until December, a smaller-scale version of the solution taken since.
Some of McConnell’s GOP colleagues including Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota have praised McConnell’s efforts, telling Insider he cut the best deal possible in the circumstances.
Others, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, told Insider that the bipartisan compromise had been a mistake.
Powered by WPeMatico
