US Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has warned his Republican rival, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, that history will judge him “unfairly” for paving the way for right-wing policies that are out of touch with the American people.
In an interview with Punchbowl News conducted at the Democratic National Convention in August and published on Monday, Schumer blamed McConnell for enabling Donald Trump’s reshaping of American politics and the judiciary. Schumer argued that McConnell played a number of roles in helping to shift the Supreme Court sharply to the right through the former president’s appointments of three Supreme Court justices, including abolishing the federal right to abortion in the decision that ended Roe v. Wade.
“Not just on Roe, but on issue after issue where they were out of touch with the American people…McConnell went too far in aligning himself with Trump, even when he thought he was wrong,” Schumer told the political news site.
He concluded, “McConnell’s role in history, in my opinion, will be a bad one.”
The bickering between the leaders of the two major parties in the U.S. Senate is not entirely surprising, given the bitter differences between them in the past. Schumer and McConnell frequently clash over judicial appointments, campaign finance law and other policy areas.
But Schumer’s comments could be an added blow because they come just four months before McConnell steps down as Senate Minority Leader, a Republican who has led his party’s group in the Senate since 2007, making him the longest-serving Senate leader in U.S. history.
Mr McConnell, who has indicated he intends to serve out the remaining two years of his term, has taken a more independent stance from Mr Trump in recent months, particularly on foreign policy, where he has criticised the former president’s isolationist approach to Ukraine.
In an interview with Punchbowl News, Schumer urged McConnell to go further in that direction, saying McConnell could improve on his own record by reviving the “old Republican Party.”
“He could restore some of that reputation by trying to bring back the old Republican Party. I’m not going to tell him what to do. He’ll ally with us to avoid isolationism. He feels passionate about that.”
Schumer thought that a landslide defeat for Trump at the hands of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in November’s presidential election would increase the chances of the Republican Party returning to a more cooperative form. “If Trump loses by a significant margin, maybe we can find the old Republican Party and work with them,” Schumer said.
He added: “I know from my experience as a senator and my friendships with my fellow senators that many of them, even if they align themselves with Trump, don’t like him and don’t think it’s good for their party or what they believe.”
“Exhibit A is Mitch McConnell.”