Mitch McConnell Warns GOP Against Villainizing Him

Wall Street Journal

By Joshua Jamerson

October 23, 2017

Mitch McConnell Warns GOP Against Villainizing Him

McConnell Warns GOP Against Villainizing Him: Over the summer, Democrats blamed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for the party’s loss in a special U.S. House election in Georgia in which their candidate was relentlessly tethered to the longtime Democratic leader. A single special election, between two parties, isn’t quite the same as an intraparty primary, but it does offer a glimpse at how one villainized national figure stands to drag on a candidate. For Republican Senate candidates in primaries for the 2018 midterm elections, that person could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

Dana Perino of Fox News asked Mr. McConnell on Sunday: “Do you worry, sir, that your personal unpopularity with the Republicans out in the country is weighing down your possibility to make sure that you can keep the Senate next year?” The majority leader responded: “Look, I’m not going to be on the ballot on any of the states, and I don’t think the candidates who are running need to take a position on me.”

But Mr. McConnell did seem to acknowledge that making candidates take sides on his performance could be detrimental to the cause of holding on to an already slim majority in the Senate. “Trying to cook up an issue like this is irrelevant,” he said. “It’s only going to create divisions and make it more difficult for us to win in November.”

To be sure, 2018 is structured to be a tough year for Senate Democrats, who must defend the majority of seats up for grabs next year. Several of them face tough elections in states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, like Missouri, West Virginia and North Dakota. But the growing concern is that the Republican Party is proving to be too fractured, leaving a potential opening for Democrats.

While Mr. McConnell would certainly like Republicans to keep a united front, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is turning Mr. McConnell into an intraparty political issue. Mr. Bannon has told potential challengers they must support three things to gain his support: An anti-immigration agenda; overturning a longtime Senate rule that seeks broad consensus—instead of a simple majority—before many policy changes; and, most importantly, removal of Mr. McConnell from his leadership perch in the Senate, report Michael C. Bender and Janet Hook. Mr. Trump is siding with GOP Senate incumbents in key re-election races, potentially putting him on a collision course with Mr. Bannon.

Mr. Bannon has told supporters that he views himself as a revolutionary, rather than a political consultant, and is willing to listen to anyone’s ideas without concern about his personal win-loss record, according to people familiar with his thinking.

A fractured primary process runs the risk of nominating non-mainstream candidates with less chance of swaying broader swaths of voters in the general election. Mr. McConnell noted this concern Sunday on CNN, saying that the wave of tea-party conservatism early this decade made it harder for Senate Republicans to win the majority. “They cost us five Senate seats in 2010 and 2012 by nominating people who couldn’t win in November,” Mr. McConnell said of the tea party. It wouldn’t be until 2014, a time when President Barack Obama some of his all-time lowest approval ratings, that Republicans took control of the Senate.

From Washington:

President Trump is siding with Republican Senate incumbents in key re-election races, potentially putting him on a collision course with Steve Bannon, the onetime White House chief strategist who has declared a “season of war” on their party’s establishment, report Michael C. Bender and Janet Hook. Plus: President Trump said Sunday that he was optimistic Congress would pass a tax plan he could sign by year’s end that reduces the corporate rate while providing tax relief for the middle class.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed Saudi Arabia to counter Iran’s influence in Iraq by deepening ties with Baghdad as Iraq looks to rebuild itself after a three-year war against Islamic State, Paul Sonne and Margherita Stancati report. The top U.S. diplomat met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The Affordable Care Act’s fifth open-enrollment season, which this year runs Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, may be lackluster compared with previous years because the administration has cut the time period in half and cut about $116 million in funding for outreach and advertising. As a result, advocacy groups are mounting on-the-ground efforts aimed at telling consumers they can still get coverage and subsidies despite recent efforts to undo the law, Stephanie Armour and Michelle Hackman report.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in the Philippines over the weekend to meet with regional counterparts as the U.S. attempts to coordinate efforts to counter North Korean belligerence, reports Gordon Lubold. North Korea’s missile launches have contributed to anxiety among the U.S. and its allies that a missile could hit Japan or South Korea or even Guam, a U.S. territory where thousands of American troops are stationed.

The Trump campaign’s digital director, Brad Parscale, will be interviewed Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee, Julie Bykowicz reports. The legislative panels also have either spoken with or plan to speak with an array of Trump campaign officials and Trump advisers, including Michael Cohen, one of Mr. Trump’s longtime attorneys. The Senate Intelligence Committee had been set to interview Mr. Cohen this week but said Friday the appearance had been delayed for unknown reasons.

Chris Wray, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said one of his top priorities would be to improve diversity in the bureau’s ranks. “The reality is we are very focused on trying to make sure our workforce better reflects America,” Mr. Wray said during a speech at the annual conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Sunday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, by a 2-to-1 vote, said the administration can prevent a 17-year-old girl, who is an undocumented immigrant in U.S. custody, from having an abortion through Oct. 31. But it said the administration should use the next 11 days to find a private sponsor to take custody of the girl, a move that could let her get an abortion without government involvement.

“Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened,” Mr. Trump said in a tweet over the weekend.

ICYMI: Mr. Trump mentioned by name three candidates who are among the finalists to lead the Federal Reserve on Friday: Current Chairwoman Janet Yellen, Stanford University economist John Taylor and Fed governor Jerome Powell.

From across the WSJ:

Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based cybersecurity firm whose software U.S. officials suspect helped the Russian government spy on Americans, promised to make its source code available for an independent review. The company said Monday the review is part of a “global transparency initiative” that it hopes will improve the trustworthiness of its products. It didn’t specify who would undertake the review or how widely the code would be disseminated.

U.S.-backed forces said they captured Syria’s largest oil field from Islamic State militants who had held it since 2014 and used it as a major source of revenue.

China’s hunt for fugitive businessman Guo Wengui kicks off a storyline seemingly straight out of a spy thriller, write Kate O’Keeffe, Aruna Viswanatha and Cezary Podkul. Pressure from Beijing officials seeking Mr. Guo’s return has sparked frantic response from the Trump administration.

A rising number of Afghan military trainees are going missing in the U.S., according to a government watchdog report. Poor leadership is one of the major problems facing Afghan security forces struggling with high casualty rates, widespread corruption, and low morale, reports Jessica Donati.

AFL-CIO members on Sunday evening selected Richard Trumka as president of the nation’s largest labor federation, retaining a position he has held since 2009.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe won a strong new mandate from voters in a national election that he signaled he’d use to push for the first changes to the nation’s constitution since it was introduced in 1947.

The Spanish government and separatists prepared for a critical week in Catalonia’s crisis after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sought new powers to remove the region’s secessionist leaders.

Fidelity Investments is moving to address problems stemming from allegations of sexual harassment and bullying at the mutual-fund giant.

Shanghai’s government will allow Silicon Valley auto maker Tesla to build a wholly owned factory in the city’s free-trade zone, an arrangement that could enable Tesla to slash production costs. The move comes as batteries have emerged as a critical front in China’s campaign to be the global leader in electric vehicles.

SEIB VIDEO: NAFTA AND TAX REFORM CAN END STOCK MARKET RUN

The stock market starts another week on a high, around 23,000. That brings joy in New York and it also brings joy in Washington, particularly in the Trump White House. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains how Nafta and tax reform can get in the way of the continuation of this great stock market run.

HERE’S A LOOK AT THE DAY AHEAD

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: President Donald Trump welcomes Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore to the White House at noon to discuss ways to further strengthen ties, and they release joint statements at 1:30 p.m. He awards retired Army Capt. Gary Rose with the Medal of Honor at 3 p.m. for conspicuous gallantry during the Vietnam War. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis attends the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in the Philippines. Energy Secretary Rick Perry represents the U.S. at the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town, South Africa. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on foreign travel through Oct. 27. Today he is in Doha, Qatar, to meet Qatari leaders and U.S. military officials to discuss joint counterterrorism efforts and other regional issues. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at George Washington University at 7 p.m. to discuss President Trump’s first year.

CONGRESS: The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and resumes consideration of the House message to accompany H.R.2266, the “Additional Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Requirements Act,’ including a vote on a motion to invoke cloture.

SUPREME COURT: The high court is on break until Oct. 30.

WHAT WE’RE READING AROUND THE WEB

“Like every major Trump decision, the president is leaving even his closest advisers in suspense over his plans for the next Federal Reserve Chairman,” writes Jonathan Swan of Axios. “Most aides I’ve spoken to think Trump will appoint Fed Board member Jerome Powell. But nobody who’s spoken to Trump feels overly confident.”

E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic writes that Sen. John McCain, in a television interview, implicitly criticized the way President Trump got a draft deferment during the Vietnam War, saying that “we drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. That is wrong.”

Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker writes that the controversy over how Gen. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, defended remarks the president made in a call to the widow of a soldier slain in Niger shows “that no matter how good one’s intentions are, when you go to work for Trump, you will end up paying for it with your reputation. For Kelly, not even his four stars prevented that.”

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