McConnell, majority leader of the silence of the GOP: Our view
History will have a lot to say about party elders who meekly stand by their endorsement of Trump.
McConnell, majority leader of the silence of the GOP: Our view History will have a lot to say about party elders who meekly stand by their endorsement of Trump. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/2fbgTp0
The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 6:03 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2016 | Updated 6:21 p.m. ET Nov. 1, 2016
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., left, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.(Photo: Yuri Gripas, AFP/Getty Images)
Prominent Republicans have found distinctly different ways to deal with their un-presidential presidential candidate.
Some have jumped enthusiastically aboard the Trump train. Some have refused to endorse the GOP nominee. And some, such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, have clumsily flip-flopped between support and opposition depending on which way the political winds are blowing.
Then there's the technique perfected by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, one of the nation's two most powerful Republicans. It's best described as hiding under the bed.
"If you're interested in the presidential election, you might as well get up and leave," McConnell told a home-state Chamber of Commerce audience last month, "because I don't have any observations to make on that." On two other stops in Kentucky, McConnell, who is fighting to hold onto the slender GOP Senate majority and his own exalted position, simply ducked reporters' questions about Trump.
After tepidly endorsing Trump in May and popping up occasionally since then to criticize some of Trump's basest actions, the cynical majority leader has all but disappeared from the presidential debate in recent weeks and gotten away with it.
Respect the will of Republican voters: Opposing view
Not exactly a profile in courage during the final stages of an election where a candidate who manifestly lacks presidential temperament, knowledge and integrity leads the Republican ticket.
The other top GOP elected official — House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — hasn't exactly covered himself in glory, either. Despite condemning a racist comment by Trump, Ryan announced that he'd vote for Trump anyway and did so last week in early voting. At least Ryan stopped defending the nominee and publicly refused to campaign with him. Just for going that far, Ryan faces a backlash that could threaten his hold on the speakership.
Trump's success has put GOP leaders in a tough spot, but certain moments call for politicians to put country above loyalty to party.
In 1950, for example, Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, a freshman and the chamber's only woman, was among the first senators to stand up to fellow Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy, another dangerous demagogue.
In 1966, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman J. William Fulbright of Arkansas broke with President Lyndon Johnson, a fellow southern Democrat, and launched a series of hearings critical of Johnson's conduct of the Vietnam War.
And in 1974, a trio of Republican leaders led by Sen. Barry Goldwater helped persuade President Nixon to resign because of his role in the Watergate scandal.
As Trump's belligerence, bullying and lack of faith in democratic norms have become abundantly clear — along with his repudiation of traditional GOP positions on free trade, entitlement reform and other issues — a growing number of Republicans have come out against him. This includes scores of party elders and opinion leaders, along with at least a dozen incumbent Republican senators in the majority that McConnell leads.
Others — Chris Christie, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani, to name a few — have played higher profile roles as Trump supporters, but none of them is the Senate majority leader. McConnell, who has a special responsibility to live up to his leadership title, is the mostly silent enabler who helped create a toxic political environment where Trumpism could thrive.
McConnell is, after all, an architect of obstructionism, including the refusal to even consider President Obama's nomination of the highly qualified Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. In 2010, McConnell went so far as to declare that "our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term."
No, Senator, your top priority is to represent the best interests of the citizens of Kentucky and the United States. History will harshly judge Republican leaders who fail to challenge Trump, despite knowing full well how unfit he is for the nation's highest office.
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