President Joe Biden is losing one of his last levers of support over the Republican Party \u2014 and he\u2019s not happy about it.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who represents the old guard of the GOP \u2014 literally and figuratively \u2014 announced he was stepping aside as party leader in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of life\u2019s most underappreciated talents is to know when it\u2019s time to move on to life\u2019s next chapter,\u201d McConnell said in prepared remarks delivered before the upper chamber, The Associated Press<\/a> reported. \u201cSo I stand before you today \u2026 to say that this will be my last term as Republican leader of the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs I have been thinking about when I would deliver some news to the Senate, I always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work,\u201d the 82-year-old senator added. \u201cA moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe. It arrived today.\u201d<\/p>\n What \u201cideals\u201d these were are anyone\u2019s guess, although it\u2019s worth noting it came one day after McConnell reportedly joined with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a closed-door meeting<\/a> to pressure GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson to reach some kind of spending deal in the House of Representatives. Draw your own conclusions.<\/p>\n Whatever the case may be, the 81-year-old president wasn\u2019t pleased to hear that McConnell was leaving his position.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry to hear McConnell stepped down,\u201d Biden said when asked about it Wednesday.<\/p>\n He then outlined why conservatives shouldn\u2019t be sorry.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve trusted him, and we have a great relationship,\u201d the president said. \u201cWe fight like hell. But he has never, never, never misrepresented anything. I\u2019m sorry to hear he\u2019s stepping down.\u201d<\/p>\n President Biden says he\u2019s \u201csorry to hear\u201d Mitch McConnell is stepping down from Senate leadership:<\/p>\n \u201cI trusted him, we had a great relationship, we fought like hell. But he never, never, never misrepresented anything. I\u2019m sorry to hear he\u2019s stepping down.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/U4a1RaQ94v<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n Perhaps the president is sorry that McConnell<\/a> isn\u2019t leaving his Senate seat as well as his position as party leader, as this would mean that Kentucky\u2019s Democratic governor could appoint a replacement \u2014 although, as NBC News<\/a> noted, Kentucky law directs governors to appoint a successor from the senator\u2019s own party based on a list of choices, so there is that.<\/p>\n But perhaps Biden can\u2019t remember when McConnell \u201cmisrepresented anything\u201d because 1) he\u2019s not a Republican, 2) his memory is shot or 3) both.<\/p>\n Never mind that a string of freezing episodes<\/a> in 2023 was attributed to a concussion the leader suffered after a fall last March<\/a>. The lack of medical answers regarding McConnell\u2019s condition \u2014 which, considering the fact he\u2019s older than both Biden and former President Donald Trump \u2014 could be considered a lack of proper representation about the full nature of his health.<\/p>\n New letter from Capitol attending physician Monahan to McConnell:<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no evidence that you have a seizure disorder or that you experienced a stroke, TIA or movement disorder such as Parkinson\u2019s disease.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/DTnRJSUqh2<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) September 5, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n However, in terms of McConnell having \u201cnever, never, never misrepresented anything,\u201d perhaps Biden ought to listen to GOP Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson describing, this month, how the minority leader absolutely misrepresented his strategy on getting border security funding in negotiations with the president and the Democrats.<\/p>\n When he entered negotiations for the foreign aid\/border security bill that ended up being dead on arrival in the House, \u201cMcConnell said his top priority was funding for Ukraine,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut public opinion and the very strong political rhetoric that we ought to secure our own border before we spend $60 billion to secure Ukraine\u2019s was effective. And so McConnell finally switched and said, \u2018OK, we\u2019ve got to let Democrats know that we are serious. We are going to defeat closure on this bill, and we are going to demand that border security is going to be attached to funding for Ukraine,\u2019\u201d the senator continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThen secret negotiations occurred on an issue the public supports Republicans on, and we end up with this monstrosity of a bill. It is an immigration bill. It\u2019s not a border security bill. But during that time frame, we repeatedly talked about making Ukraine funding contingent on border metrics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Then, Johnson said, \u201cusing his own authority without telling the conference even though he knew the conference supported tying border security or Ukraine funding to actually securing the border, McConnell just took that off the table.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd that moment of leverage we had where we could use Biden\u2019s desire for Ukraine funding to actually force him to use his executive authority to secure the border has been lost, and that is why so many of us are speaking out against McConnell,\u201d the senator said. \u201cIt was such a breach of his leadership position and such a, just a horrible thing to do to Americans who want a secure border.\u201d<\/p>\n WATCH: Sen. Ron Johnson exposes how Mitch McConnell betrayed Republicans on border security. pic.twitter.com\/ijWTzGauff<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 13, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n So maybe you\u2019re not surprised that Joe Biden thinks Mitch McConnell \u201cnever, never, never misrepresented anything\u201d \u2014 because McConnell hasn\u2019t to him.<\/em> However, in terms of \u201cfight[ing] like hell\u201d with him, now\u00a0that\u2019s<\/em> some grade-A misrepresentation.<\/p>\n If he wants to find out what \u201cfight[ing] like hell\u201d looks like, though, my guess is that he\u2019ll find out once McConnell is gone.<\/p>\n This article appeared originally on The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Biden Not Happy About Mitch McConnell Stepping Down, Says He \u2018Never Misrepresented Anything\u2019<\/a> appeared first on The Gateway Pundit<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" President Joe Biden is losing one of his last levers of support over the Republican Party \u2014 and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n