Hoping to keep his seat and wary of angering the base, McConnell defers to Trump on the shutdown
by David M. Drucker
January 16, 2019 12:03 AM During former President Barack Obama’s tenure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., first as the Senate minority leader and later majority leader, assumed the mantle of lead policy maker and negotiator for his party.
But with President Trump in the White House and his agenda enjoying the broad support of GOP primary voters, especially on the border wall, McConnell views the political terrain and his leadership differently, say knowledgeable Republicans. That has led to deferring to the president on policy and strategy during the 26-day-old government shutdown when in the past he might have taken the reigns and killed it.
McConnell’s overriding interest is avoiding the sort of public warfare with Trump that threatened to decapitate his majority early in 2018, before he reached a detente with the president, and put his conference in the best position to emerge from the 2020 primaries unscathed. The majority leader is among the Republicans up for re-election next year.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/hoping-to-keep-his-seat-and-wary-of-angering-the-base-mcconnell-defers-to-trump-on-the-shutdown