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McConnell Drops a Major Bombshell About Trump’s National Emergency Declaration

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday said it’s likely the Senate will pass a resolution blocking President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration for his border wall. The silver lining, for those who agree with Trump’s declaration, is the Senate may not have enough votes to override a veto, should Trump go that route.

“What is clear in the Senate is there will be enough votes to pass the resolution of disapproval, which will then be vetoed by the president,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “Then, in all likelihood, the veto will be upheld in the House.”

McConnell said he’s not happy with Trump deciding to “take this path” by declaring a national emergency. It puts the Republicans in Congress in bind. They don’t want to break away from Trump on border security but they also worry about precedent it sets, especially when a Democrat takes the White House. . .

McConnell’s remarks come after Sunday’s revelation that Sen. Rand Paul, also from Kentucky, would vote with Democrats and a handful of Republicans. Other Republicans voting in favor of the resolution include Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Thom Tillis (NC).

A few Senators, like Cory Gardner (R-CO), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mitt Romney (R-UT), have yet to say how they’ll vote on the resolution. (Read more from “McConnell Drops a Major Bombshell About Trump’s National Emergency Declaration” HERE)

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McConnell Has a Stark Warning for Trump Over a National Emergency

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) last week warned President Donald Trump about the dangers of declaring a national emergency for the proposed border wall, The Washington Post reported. According to those familiar with the private conversation, McConnell said the declaration could divide the Republican Party and Congress would, more than likely, pass a resolution disapproving the emergency declaration. Should that declaration happen, as McConnell suggested, Trump could be forced to veto the declaration, which would put him at odds with his own party. . .

From WaPo:

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump and McConnell’s meeting. A McConnell spokesman declined to discuss the senator’s private conversations.

On the same day he met with the president, McConnell publicly voiced his opposition to a national emergency declaration as he encouraged the 17-member congressional committee to find another way out of the impasse. “I’m for whatever works, which means avoiding a shutdown and avoiding the president feeling he should declare a national emergency,” McConnell said during his weekly news conference in the Capitol.

McConnell’s top deputy, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), told GOP senators at a private lunch that same day that if they had issues with the president’s declaring a national emergency, they should raise them with the White House, according to one of the Republicans and another person with knowledge of Thune’s comments, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe them.

(Read more from “McConnell Has a Stark Warning for Trump Over a National Emergency” HERE)

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McConnell Triples Down: We’re Voting This Week on Judge Kavanaugh

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By Townhall. Speaking during a press conference Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tripled down on his promise to hold a vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this week.

“We’ll get an FBI report soon. It will be made available to each Senator. All the Senators will be able to look at it,” McConnell said. “We’ll be voting this week.”

During a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, McConnell berated Democrats for continued their deployment of delay tactics against Judge Kavanaugh’s nomination.

“It started with straightforward political maneuvering. None of it worked, of course. But — whatever excuses they could find to delay, delay, delay. First, back in June, Democrats tried to argue the Senate shouldn’t confirm a Supreme Court justice in any even-numbered year. Then they were reminded that Justices Kagan, Breyer, and Souter were all confirmed during midterm election years. And that argument evaporated,” McConnell said. (Read more from “McConnell Triples Down: We’re Voting This Week on Judge Kavanaugh” HERE)

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Mitch McConnell Says FBI’s Kavanaugh Report Won’t Be Made Public

By Huffington Post. The report from the FBI’s background investigation into the sexual assault allegations leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh will be shown only to members of the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Tuesday.

“We will get an FBI report soon. It will be made available to each senator and only senators will be allowed to look at it. That’s the way these reports are always handled,” McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill, noting that background investigations are typically added to a nominee’s file for senators to access. . .

“There’s a growing consensus in the Senate that when the FBI’s investigation is complete, the finding should be released publicly with any personal information redacted,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. (Read more from “Mitch McConnell Says FBI’s Kavanaugh Report Won’t Be Made Public” HERE)

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‘Cocaine Mitch’ Trolls Don Blankenship After Loss in Very Questionable Tweet

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On Tuesday, the official Twitter account of Mitch McConnell for Senate trolled Don Blankenship after he labeled McConnell ‘Cocaine Mitch’ and then got blown out in West Virginia’s GOP Senate nomination race.

The nickname, started by Blankenship last week, was featured in an ad that said: “One of my goals as US senator will be to ditch Cocaine Mitch.”

After Blankenship was blown out by double-digits, Team Mitch tweeted a photoshopped image of McConnell in a picture from Netflix’s “Narcos,” a show about Latin American drug cartels, that said: “Thanks for playing, Don Blankenship‌.”

(Read more from “‘Cocaine Mitch’ Trolls Don Blankenship After Loss in Hilarious Tweet” HERE)

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Despicable Corruption: McConnell’s Wife Becomes Transpo Secretary, Family Starts Buying Massive Chinese Ships

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) in-laws have ordered 10 massive cargo ships from the Chinese government since the senator’s wife Elaine Chao became Secretary of Transportation. The deep financial ties between the Chao family’s shipping business Foremost Group and the Chinese regime were first revealed in the #1 New York Times bestseller Secret Empires.

Foremost Group, which is owned by Sec. Elaine Chao’s father and Sen. McConnell’s father-in-law James S.C. Chao, signed contracts with a subsidiary of the state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) for four bulk cargo ships in June and September 2017. In December 2017, Chao’s company signed another contract with state-owned CSSC at Foremost’s New York office for two massive 210,000-ton ships. James S.C. Chao and two of Elaine’s sisters were in attendance. So, too, was the Consul General of China in New York, as well as representatives from the CSSC. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Then on January 31, 2018, Foremost Group ordered four more 210,000-ton ships from CSSC. Angela Chao, sister to Sec. Elaine Chao and Foremost’s Deputy Chairman, said she expects cooperation between the two entities to extend into the future. In January 2017, Angela Chao joined the board of the state-owned Bank of China.

The finances of Sec. Elaine Chao and her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell, are closely tied to the Foremost Group. In 2008, James Chao gave a $5 million-$25 million “gift” to Sen. McConnell, more than tripling his net worth. Contracts with other Chinese state-owned enterprises make up a significant portion of Foremost’s business. James and Angela Chao previously served on the board of CSSC Holdings, a major contractor for the Chinese military and a key supporter of the PLA Navy.

Despite increasing threats of a trade war between the Trump Administration and the Chinese government, the Chao family’s ties to the Chinese government do not seem to have cooled. To the contrary, as the 10-ship order suggests, they have accelerated. Moreover, James Chao was recently in China for an event promoting his new Chinese-language biography. The event was sponsored by Xinhua, the Chinese state-owned media outlet, and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), a branch of the Communist Party known to be active in foreign influence operations. Sponsors praised James Chao as a great promoter of China abroad, referring to him as “vanguard of China-US exchanges.” (Read more from “Despicable Corruption: McConnell’s Wife Becomes Transpo Secretary, Family Starts Buying Massive Chinese Ships” HERE)

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Mitch McConnell Says Midterms Will Be Tough for the Republican Party

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By The Blaze. In an interview with Kentucky Today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed concern this week over how his party might fare in the 2018 midterm elections.

Speaking with the paper’s editorial board, McConnell said “This is going to be a challenging year. We know the wind is going to be in our face. We don’t know whether it’s going to be a Category 3, 4, or 5.”

Other GOP lawmakers have voiced fears for their party in 2018, citing jitters over President Trump’s tariffs, the passage of a bloated omnibus spending bill and the possibility of an energized Democratic Party.

McConnell said he hopes for Republicans to be able to at least hold the Senate, where critical appointments can shape the future of the country. (Read more from “Mitch McConnell Says Midterms Will Be Tough for the Republican Party” HERE)

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Rep. Darrell Issa to Retire, Adding to Record GOP Exodus From Congress

By NPR. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., announced he will not seek re-election Wednesday, adding to a record number of House Republicans heading for the exits ahead of the 2018 midterms — perhaps seeing the writing on the wall of a possible wave election for Democrats.

There are now 31 Republicans who will not seek re-election in November: 19 who are retiring outright and another 12 who are running for higher office. And that list is is expected to grow in the coming weeks.

The last time a party had nearly that many members retire during a midterm year was in 1994, when 28 Democrats left and the GOP subsequently took back control of Congress in the Republican Revolution. Now, it’s Republicans who find themselves in the opposite and unenviable position. Just one year into his term, President Trump has record low approval ratings, congressional Republicans have had few legislative achievements save for the tax overhaul they passed last month, and Democrats seem more fired up than ever to issue a rebuke to the GOP at the ballot box this year. (Read more from “Rep. Darrell Issa to Retire, Adding to Record GOP Exodus From Congress” HERE)

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Congressman to McConnell: End the Filibuster and Save Babies — or Find a New Job

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Congressman Trent Franks wants his 20-week abortion ban to get a Senate vote. But to get there, he needs Mitch McConnell to end the filibuster — or find another line of work.

The House passed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act — or “Micah’s Law” — on October 3rd. If it becomes law, abortions would be banned after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.

“We’re going to protect unborn children once they’ve reached the beginning of the sixth month, because that’s clearly at a time when there’s no real medical authority that would say that they don’t feel pain,” Franks told The Daily Caller in an exclusive “Newsmakers” interview. “They do indeed feel pain at that age.”

Currently, the United States is one of only seven countries, including North Korea and China, which permits elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. (Read more from “Congressman to McConnell: End the Filibuster and Save Babies — or Find a New Job” HERE)

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Mitch McConnell Is the New Nancy Pelosi

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In the elections of 2010, grassroots Americans flipped the House from Democratic to Republican based largely on the anger against Nancy Pelosi, who was then the Speaker of the House.

Shortly after the elections, the New York Times asked, “Is Pelosi America’s most unpopular politician?”

It turns out she was, and she was used as a foil for years by grassroots and establishment Republicans in campaigns to crystallize the problems of the nation.

Yet for years, the Democrat Party chose to keep her at the helm of the leadership of the Democratic arm of the House. This year, some Democrats tried to remove her from leadership, and she famously said that she was “worth the trouble.”

The tactic of using Pelosi as a specter of danger during campaigns was extremely successful. Pelosi, in 2013, became the most popular name in congressional leadership, Democrat and Republican alike, but that popularity was largely negative in nature. She became a household name because she was so awful. She was safe in her San Francisco district, but despite that fact, it was her name recognition that destroyed her party’s command.

The nation in 2010 could not remove the president, whom they had finally seen as the destroyer he really was. We tried but could not remove Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with Republican Sharron Angle, due to shenanigans by the establishment wing of the Republican Party. So with the president locked in for at least two more years and the Senate majority leader locked in for 6 more, it was the unremovable Pelosi who took the brunt of the nation’s ire and would for years to come.

Now that the Republicans lead the House, the Senate, and the White House, the lowest-polling leader is Mitch McConnell. Though Pelosi was terribly unfavored, she was not as unfavored in her own party as Mitch McConnell is now.

Just as Pelosi was used during past elections to make the nation think of what kind of future we would have if any of her Democrats remained in office, the nation needs to use Mitch McConnell as the specter Pelosi was and still is to make the nation think of what is standing in the way of the people who want action on the conservative aspects of Trump’s agenda.

Mitch isn’t going anywhere, though many politically inexperienced supporters of the president have suggested he be removed. But though Mitch’s name should be used in the primaries as a weapon, it is his second job that should be the real target.

Recently, the president put McConnell in his Twitter crosshairs, but then relented and made nice when both McConnell’s people and the White House issued statements that they would continue to work together. They intend to work together on agenda items like tax reform, which, if experience is any indication, will be nothing like the promises Trump’s team made during his campaign. They also will work together on infrastructure, which is estimated to add to the deficit significantly. And they both want the debt ceiling raised, as if the nation needs one more boulder on the backs of working Americans. The Senate majority leader’s first job is to continue the legacy of the previous Senate because he’s the epitome of the establishment.

But McConnell’s second job, a job he takes just as seriously as the first, is to elect carbon copies of himself so that they will vote the way he tells them to.

Some Trump supporters are gleeful that Trump was seen before the Phoenix rally with possible challengers to Senator Jeff Flake. But today, those supporters are hoping Sheriff Joe Arpaio will challenge Flake. Since Flake is a McConnell lackey, I suppose the grassroots of Arizona will have to decide who can best oust Flake.

But Trump has put his weight behind Luther Strange of Alabama, another McConnell lackey. So it isn’t wise for Trump supporters to campaign for whoever Trump wants them to, because seemingly Trump himself doesn’t understand that his agenda will never be put into action until the McConnell army is stopped.

If McConnell’s carbon copies win, Trump’s presidency may well end in 2020, with very little done but the continuation of Pelosi’s agenda.

After all the work the people have done to pull the nation away from the fire since 2010, allowing McConnell to continue to elect proxies to call the shots will seriously damage Trump’s agenda, the people’s agenda, and the future of the nation.

Any Republicans running for Senate ought to be asked point-blank if they will go along with McConnell. If they answer yes, they’re done. If they equivocate, they’re done. If they answer no, and provide the right reasons why, they should be carried on the shoulders of the grassroots to victory.

Those who answer improperly will know why: It’s because of Mitch McConnell. (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell Is the New Nancy Pelosi” please click HERE)

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Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan Surrender Unconditionally

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Once again, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have demonstrated how good they are at surrendering to the unarmed.

Even if Republicans had 80 percent majorities in Congress along with the White House, they would find an excuse for giving Democrats everything they want on the debt ceiling and the upcoming budget bill. The reason is simple: They have no interest in conservative governance. They love giving Democrats what they want, even if they have the power to pass a good bill and even if they’d win a stare-down over a shutdown.

McConnell fights the doctors, not the illness

Earlier this week, McConnell wanted Democrats to understand that he will not let them try to get him to win. Unconditional surrender is the only way forward:

“There is zero chance — no chance — we won’t raise the debt ceiling. No chance. America is not going to default, and we’ll get the job done in conjunction with the secretary of the Treasury.”

There are a couple of important observations about this statement:

1. McConnell is right that there is zero chance of default. As I’ve noted before, our revenue stands at about $3.4 trillion a year, and interest on the debt is $270 billion. We have enough funds to deal with the interest and all the other vital functions of government without issuing any more debt. Unfortunately, this is not what McConnell meant by not defaulting. He is using the other side’s false talking point about default.

2. The only way we will actually default and, in the long run, have trouble paying interest payments, is not if we fail to raise the debt ceiling but if we fail to lower the debt floor. Why is McConnell making the debt ceiling the problem rather than the actual debt?

3. Why would anyone preemptively tell Democrats they will give them anything they want because they are so scared of their obstruction, even when they are in the minority? Putting the repeal of the filibuster aside for a moment, yes, it’s true that Republicans don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. But neither do Democrats! And they don’t have the White House, the House, or a majority vote in the Senate with the leverage to threaten reforms to the filibuster.

The answer to all of these questions is simple: Republicans don’t share our values and goals. Whereas Democrats view brinksmanship as leverage to advance their goals, Republicans view it as the plague to be avoided precisely because they have no interest in our goals. They could have 99 Senate seats, and they would still find an excuse not to do the right thing.

Fear of government shutdown is a phony excuse to perpetuate the status quo

And so it goes with the government funding bill. Republicans have an opportunity to get up in front of the people and declare their priorities in what they plan to fund in the budget and what they plan not to fund. They should fund border security and missile defense while defunding Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities, refugee resettlement, and other harmful aspects of government. Americans care more about these issues than a 17 percent shutdown of the bureaucracies.

Yet Republicans, in their insular thinking and their broken political barometer, believe that Americans care about what the D.C. media cares about — a government shutdown — and that Democrats would always win a stare-down. It’s kind of like their fear of the monument issue, where every poll shows super-majority opposition to tearing down monuments, yet Republicans are running scared. It’s why they have no interest in fighting sanctuary cities, fighting for free market health care reform, reclaiming power from the courts, or pushing voter ID.

Take a look at what Paul Ryan said about a government shutdown:

“I don’t think a government shutdown is necessary and I don’t think most people want to see a government shutdown, ourselves included,”

Notice the difference in tone between GOP leaders and Chuck Schumer. Democrats will pound the lectern and declare their beliefs and assert their red lines on policy, even when they are extremely unpopular. Yet Republican leaders sound more like cable commentators opining on the state of play with a government shutdown, refusing to fight for their policies.

That is because they don’t have any policies other than pursuing power as an end to itself.

Which brings us to President Trump

Trump was correct to call out McConnell and Ryan for sabotaging the agenda on the debt ceiling and the budget funding over the border wall, which, by the way, is required by current law. Sadly, we are not going to change this leadership until they are defeated or we start a new party. But Trump can fix the way his administration behaves. Guess who was standing next to McConnell while he made his comments on the debt ceiling? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trump’s own Treasury secretary has been running around for months calling for what Trump himself is now repudiating. And he has been pressuring conservatives to capitulate. So rather than his administration uniting behind his supposed agenda, his personnel are actually fueling the very behavior from Ryan and McConnell that Trump has rebuked. This is absurd.

The president needs to double down from yesterday’s tweets and get his administration singing in the same key. He needs to create a list of red lines in the budget, red lines that, if crossed, will trigger his veto pen. He should make some form of free market health care reform the condition for raising the debt ceiling, because health care is the largest driver of the debt. Then he must fully support candidates who are willing to have his back and not support McConnell puppets like Luther Strange.

Overall, the president must remember that Twitter is not a policy outcome, especially when almost all his advisers and cabinet members are rowing in the opposite direction. He should remember who supported his campaign agenda and who opposed it and stop banishing supporters while embracing opponents.

As the party stands now, there is not much Trump can do about congressional leaders. But he can consolidate his own message and behavior by bringing his own administration on board. (For more from the author of “Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan Surrender Unconditionally” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

All He Does Is Fail: Reap What You Sowed, Mitch McConnell

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Now that a group of liberal GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski, Shelly Moore Capito, and Susan Collins, have made it clear they oppose repeal of Obamacare, some commentators are suggesting that McConnell and party leadership are in an untenable position. They blame conservatives for dissenting from the Right, forcing leadership into a scenario where the liberal flank of the party is also emboldened to dissent from the Left, leaving “mainstream” Republicans sandwiched in between with nothing to pass.

Thus, isn’t Mitch McConnell the victim and Senator Mike Lee the villain?

The short answer is that the problem with the party runs much deeper than the three or so “most liberal” Republicans. The problem is that the majority of the party, leadership members, and “mainstream” elected Republicans agree with the liberal Republicans in principle. They are merely using them as foils.

Why is it that we have so many Republicans who openly support every tenet of Obamacare in the first place? And not just from blue states. From Lisa Murkowski and John McCain to Lindsey Graham, Shelly Moore Capito, Lamar Alexander, and Bill Cassidy, the GOP conference is full of RINOs.

The answer is simple. GOP bosses have no problem with these people and will continue to support them. They stand for nothing. They have failed to offer a free market vision for health care (or anything else for that matter) and don’t disagree with any of the principles from the left flank of the caucus. These senators who are more openly liberal know that the GOP platform is a joke and a free-for-all. They know that leadership will continue to help them get elected, help new liberal Republicans win primaries, and tolerate endless dissent.

The dissents from Mike Lee and Rand Paul are not equivalent to the dissents from Capito and Murkwoski. While the former are upholding the GOP promise and the GOP platform, and even compromising on it, the other side is not willing to adopt a single tenet of what they signed onto during the election. But unlike conservatives who are raked over the coals and marginalized for believing in what the party claims it stands for, these liberal Republicans get off scot-free.

It’s precisely because we didn’t have a president and party leadership speaking with one voice on GOP free market principles that the left flank of the party felt emboldened to promote Obamacare. They understand that party leaders don’t care.

A functioning party that actually stands for something will always have slightly differing shades of its ideology and some differing opinions, but everyone is united behind fundamental principles. Just look at the Democrat Party. They never have problems on legacy issues in a significant way from their “right flank,” because the core center of the party leadership actually believes in their platform.

Think about it: when was the last time you found a Democrat undermining her party’s agenda in any meaningful way, much less on a core legacy item? Where are the Democrats supporting traditional marriage or even dissenting from the party line on the most extreme ideas of promoting sex-change operations in the military? Not a single one Democrat voted against funding sex-change operations in the military.

When was the last time a Democrat supported free markets?

When was the last time a Democrat supported private retirement accounts?

When was the last time a Democrat supported strong borders and opposed illegal immigration?

Even the Democrats from the reddest of red states are fully in cahoots with their party leadership. They merely posture to the Right on a few issues, such as guns, but will never thwart their party in a meaningful way. In fact, the only action we’ve seen from “pro-gun” Joe Manchin was his effort to further the gun-control agenda. It’s all a sham. He has never dissented from the pro-abortion agenda or the transgender agenda — ever! His work in the Senate is completely divorced from his campaign ads.

Yet we have Republicans even from red states who can’t uphold the most basic tenets of the GOP platform. Whereas Democrats lie to the voters in pursuit of their party’s platform, Republicans lie to the voters in pursuit of the other party’s platform.

If the mainstream elected Republicans actually believed in their party’s platform with as much conviction as mainstream Democrats believe in thiers, there would be no place for those who are completely out of touch with those values.

But it’s worse than the callous attitude toward enforcing the platform. Republicans like Mitch McConnell have ensured that these very liberal Republicans continue to win primaries. After Lisa Murkowski ran as an Independent in 2010, and knowing her liberal views on every single issue under the sun, including health care and abortion, why did they help her win over Joe Miller in 2016? They should have downright endorsed Joe Miller if they really believed in their platform. After all, Alaska is a red state.

Furthermore, why do we have a pro-abortion liberal like Capito in a solidly pro-life state like West Virginia? This is because party bosses make it clear that candidates like Mike Lee have no place in the party, even in red states, and that no matter how liberal one of the establishment candidates is, they will support that candidate until the bitter end. At this very juncture, the entire party infrastructure is busy promoting similar candidates in the 2018 primaries — candidates who couldn’t care less about the party platform.

As such, why should conservatives sell out their principles and take ownership of an Obamacare bailout bill just to placate members who were only elected thanks to the work of McConnell and Company? Let him reap what he sows.

The problem with the Republican Party is not that there are a few fringe Republicans on the Left who like to vote with the Democrats. It’s that, unlike with Democrats, there are only a few “fringe” Republicans who actually believe in the platform of the party. (For more from the author of “All He Does Is Fail: Reap What You Sowed, Mitch McConnell” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.