At a Capitol Hill news conference on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz was asked whether he believed it was time to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell as his party’s minority leader. “I think it is,” the Texas Republican replied.
McConnell was asked soon after for his reaction to the comments. The Kentuckian tried to shrug it off with a joke, conceding that Cruz is “not a fan” of his.
If the Texan were the GOP leader’s only intraparty critic, that might have helped end the larger discussion, but the truth is a bit more complex — because Cruz isn’t alone.
Sen. Rand Paul appeared on Fox News this week and host Laura Ingraham asked him about his party’s leader. Paul said, referring to McConnell:
“He’s completely out of touch with Kentucky Republicans, with conservative Republicans. … His approval ratings in Kentucky are almost below zero, they are the lowest of any elected official in the United States. … He is in the minority of his caucus.”
It’s worth emphasizing for context that Paul and McConnell are not just fellow Republicans, they’re representing the same state. As recently as 2016, McConnell even endorsed Paul’s ill-fated presidential candidacy.
But that didn’t stop Kentucky’s junior senator from raking Kentucky’s senior senator over the coals on national television this week.
The same day, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin blamed McConnell for the party’s bizarre rejection of the border plan GOP senators requested. “We had 10 of us to vote against him at the start of this Congress. There may be a few more people questioning him,” Johnson told NBC News. “I hope a lot of my colleagues are asking themselves: How did we get ourselves in a situation where we’re being blamed for Biden’s open border policy? How could that be possible? The answer is McConnell made that possible.”
A day earlier, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, reflecting on the GOP’s rejection of a border bill crafted by Republican Sen. James Lankford…
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