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- Former President Donald Trump renewed his “Old Crow” nickname for Mitch McConnell last week.
- McConnell said he takes it has a compliment, as it’s also the name of a Kentucky-made bourbon.
- McConnell also dismissed Trump’s efforts to replace him as Senate minority leader.
Sen. Mitch McConnell has embraced former President Donald Trump’s nickname for him, saying it happens to be the same as his drink of choice.
Trump blasted the Senate minority leader in a statement last week, using a nickname he has directed at McConnell in the past. Trump was responding to former Vice President Mike Pence who said Trump was “wrong” to say the vice president had the power to overturn the election.
“Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible,” Trump said in the statement.
McConnell addressed the nickname in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
“It’s my favorite bourbon,” McConnell said, referring to a brand of bourbon whiskey made in Kentucky, the senator’s home state. Old Crow bourbon is distilled by Beam Suntory, the company behind Jim Beam and other whiskey brands.
McConnell said to a member of his staff during the interview: “Aren’t we using Old Crow as my moniker now? It was Henry Clay’s favorite bourbon.”
Henry Clay represented Kentucky in the Senate and the House of Representatives and served as the ninth secretary of state of the US in the first half of the 1800s.
In the same interview, McConnell also dismissed Trump’s threats to oust him as the top Republican in the Senate, pointing out that no other GOP senators have publicly expressed interest in replacing him.
“Every reporter in town, including, I’m sure, you, have been probing to find one for months, right?” McConnell said to the Examiner reporter. “Have you found one?”
Trump, well-known for bestowing nicknames, had called McConnell “Old Crow” before, which the senator also called an “honor,” citing the Henry Clay connection.
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