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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

The Plan to Take Down Mitch McConnell

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.62.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2019

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is the most unpopular senator in the country. Yet, he has represented the state of Kentucky for over 25 years, defeating an array of opponents along the way. Will his challenger in 2020 suffer the same fate as the rest? Guest: Ryland Barton, Capitol Bureau Chief at Kentucky Public Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You can say what you want about Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, but at least he's got a sense of humor.

0:09.3

He's pretty legendary and he keeps, he has like lots and lots of framed political cartoons in his office.

0:16.0

And he really savers the best ones.

0:20.0

Rylan Barton covers McConnell for Kentucky Public Radio.

0:24.0

He says, as McConnell gears up for a 2020 re-election campaign, he's got jokes.

0:30.1

There is a political cartoon just from yesterday from the hero leader Lexington's newspaper Joel Pet, this great cartoonist.

0:37.0

He had this cartoon of Mitch McConnell digging graves.

0:41.0

In this cartoon, McConnell's surrounded by headstones.

0:44.3

There's one for the middle class, another for coal miners, and another for campaign finance reform.

0:51.4

And McConnell, he's digging more graves.

0:54.4

And the graves that he was digging are his, you know, possible democratic opponents for this 2020 race coming up.

1:00.8

And Mitch McConnell actually tweeted this out saying of all the 600 political cartoons that had been drawn about me over the years, this one might be my favorite.

1:14.2

So his plan is to just bury any opposition.

1:17.0

I don't know literally, but figuratively, certainly in that cartoon.

1:21.6

Yeah, I mean, that's that's the plan and something he's done really well over the years.

1:28.0

Since he became the Senate Majority Leader back in 2015, Mitch McConnell has become this bogeyman for the Democrats, preventing their agenda from going anywhere.

1:37.9

Nancy Pelosi even held a press conference where she called McConnell the grim reaper, since he's killed so much of her legislation.

1:45.4

But Ryland says the secret to McConnell's success is that he hears this kind of criticism.

1:51.5

And instead of running from it, instead of being intimidated by it, he's like, sure, bring it on.

1:57.8

And I think that's really emblematic kind of part of why McConnell is so successful.

2:03.4

I guess he takes punches well.

2:05.5

He embraces a lot of the criticism, but his McConnell popular at home.

...

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