Trump Goes Scorched Earth On GOP Senators While Needing Their Votes
President Donald Trump went scorched earth on several Republican U.S. Senators on Thursday while taking questions from the press in the Oval Office.
Trump went after “angry man” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and “terrible” Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), while also offering some less-than-kind words for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
The exchange began with Trump fuming about the need for the Senate to pass his voter ID bill, The SAVE Act.
“Do you think there’s enough support from Republicans in Congress to pass it?” a reporter pressed.
“I mean, any Republican that voted against it would be–” Trump began as the reporter added, “McConnell and Collins say they don’t think it will pass.”
“Well, McConnell’s an angry man. He, you know, got thrown out of his position. He’s an angry guy. You know, he should be very thankful to me, because if I didn’t win, he wouldn’t have gotten to a point. I appointed the judges. He didn’t. He gets credit for appointing judges. He didn’t appoint anybody. I did. You know how I did? I won the election, and then I picked judges,” Trump said, adding:
And the judges ended up getting approved. And they said, oh, doesn’t he do a good job? He didn’t do a great job. What the hell did he do? I won the election. He’s an angry man who’s very disloyal to John Thune. John Thune’s a good man. He was a loyal worker for Mitch McConnell. He worked for Mitch McConnell. He worked very hard. He was very loyal to him.
I disagreed with him a lot because Mitch McConnell gave so much money to Democrats. He gave them money. I had to go get the wall money from the military. I just took it out of the military, because that guy wouldn’t do anything. He gave it — no, Mitch McConnell’s a bad guy and he’s — I thought he was lousy at his job, lousy at his job, but when they gave him — the only thing they gave him a lot of credit for was judges, but I’m the one that got the judges.
You know why? I won the election. If I didn’t win the election, he wouldn’t have had any judges. So, uh, yeah. So what, Mr. President, when will you send the supplemental to, uh… They may send the supplemental, but you have him, you have Murkowski. I’ve done so much for Murkowski. You have the governor — are you a governor? Have I done a lot for Alaska? Is there anybody done more for Alaska than me? You’ve been the best president for Alaska in our history, Mr. President. I’ve said that many times.
And Murkowski is terrible, terrible to us, terrible to the country. Mr. President. And, you know, I almost feel guilty. I’ve probably done more for Alaska than any other state. Not because of her, because it’s the right thing to do. She’s just an impediment. But she’s there. She probably will be a negative vote. You have a couple of others. I think Rand Paul’s come a long way. Let’s see what happens. I think Rand Paul likes “Save America.” Because Rand Paul is usually a negative vote, but I think he likes “Save America.” So that’s good. I like Rand Paul. But, you know, I hope he votes for us. Yeah.
The GOP currently holds a 53-47 majority in the U.S. Senate, which means Trump can only afford to lose four votes to pass his agenda. His attacks on U.S. Senators like Thom Tillis (R-NC), Murkowski, and McConnell, combined with those Senators whose primary opponents he endorsed, Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and John Cornyn (R-TX), means the president has potentially angered more Senators than votes he can afford to lose.
Watch the clip above via Fox News.
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