President Donald Trump is making moves to challenge the Republican Party’s Senate leadership, according to reports.
Trump is reportedly pushing to get rid of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and replace him with Florida Senator Rick Scott, Politico is reporting.
The 45th president has publicly feuded with McConnell for nearly five years and routinely calls for the Kentucky senator to be removed from GOP leadership.
“How this guy can stay as Leader is beyond comprehension—this is coming not only from me, but from virtually everyone in the Republican Party,” Trump wrote in December.
“He is a disaster and should be replaced as ‘Leader’ ASAP!”
Now Trump is picking up the pace and is trying to recruit Scott as a candidate to challenge McConnell.
“You should run for Senate majority leader,” Trump reportedly told Scott.
Accoridng to Politico, Scott did not reject the idea.
“We have to focus on winning,” Scott responded.
“My only focus is on winning.”
But behind the scenes, Politico paints a different picture.
One where Scott and McConnell are at odds more frequently and where he must walk a fine line between Trump and his nemesis McConnell.
“Rick Scott doesn’t give a f*ck about what McConnell world thinks,” said one senior Republican official who knows them both.
Scott’s spokesman Chris Hartline said: “Chairman Scott and Leader McConnell are working hand in hand to win back the Senate in November.”
From Politico:
This week only cemented speculation about the latter: Scott, 69, made waves — and infuriated some McConnell allies — when he bucked the GOP leader’s decision not to lay out a policy agenda for 2022 and instead released his own.
Whereas McConnell wanted to make the election a referendum on President JOE BIDEN’s unpopularity, inflation and other Democratic failures, Scott unilaterally decided that Republicans should also state what they’re for.
His list of red-meat proposals addressed topics ranging from term limits and finishing Trump’s border wall to nationwide voter ID laws to banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
Scott’s move opened a rare tactical divide between McConnell and the man leading the party’s efforts to win the Senate.
But despite internal criticism from some in his own party, Scott isn’t soft-pedaling his platform.
He’s spending seven figures from his own campaign account to promote it, starting today.
This weekend, he’ll tout his proposals at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
DITCH MITCH: Trump Wants Florida Senator Rick Scott to Challenge McConnell for Leader https://t.co/FljW3PXrfC
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) February 25, 2022
Under Joe Biden’s failed leadership, the PCE price index increased 6.1%. It’s ANOTHER 40-year record for high inflation. America’s poorest families, like mine growing up, are struggling to keep up & Biden’s done NOTHING to fix it. https://t.co/87VvxYkl2g
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) February 25, 2022
