Mitch McConnell, the Most Dangerous Politician in America
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
Mitch McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984, but he didn’t come to national prominence until the Obama Presidency, when, as the Senate Majority Leader, he emerged as one of the Administration’s most unyielding and effective legislative opponents. In the past three years, McConnell has put his political skills to work in support of Donald Trump’s agenda, despite the lasting damage that his maneuvering is doing to the Senate and to American democracy. Jane Mayer joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss how and why McConnell, who faces reëlection this year, became one of Trump’s staunchest allies.
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| 1:11.9 | This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about |
| 1:17.0 | politics. It's Thursday, April 16th. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker. |
| 1:24.5 | Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for re-election in November. |
| 1:29.3 | Kentucky voters first sent him to the Senate in 1984, but he wasn't a well-known figure |
| 1:35.3 | until the Obama administration, when he made his name by opposing virtually all initiatives |
| 1:40.5 | from the White House and his Democratic colleagues. During the Trump years, he has |
| 1:46.0 | consistently refused to use the powers of the Senate to act as a check on the president. Instead, |
| 1:53.0 | McConnell has become Trump's most powerful facilitator, propping up an administration he privately |
| 1:59.3 | scorns and ensuring the president a succession of legislative and judicial victories. |
| 2:05.8 | In the past month, as the coronavirus pandemic became a national emergency, McConnell accused congressional Democrats of performative outrage for demanding more money in the stimulus bill for virus relief. |
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