“They kicked our ass. It’s that simple,” the senator said. John Kennedy (R-La.). “I think we got screwed. That’s a Louisiana word for ‘screwed.’ And they kicked our ass. That’s the way my folks back home see it.”
As the GOP faces the midterms, McCarthy and McConnell are operating in different galaxies. As the House GOP leader navigates a bumpy road as he tries to grab the speaker’s gavel next year, voting against all those big bipartisan deals to avoid losing any ground with conservatives in his conference, the Senate Minority Leader has offered surprising support for a decent portion of President Joe Biden’s agenda.
The dynamic could pose serious challenges, given that the two men hope to co-lead a Republican Congress next year. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) simply said that all Senate Republicans working with Democrats on legislation backed by Biden are “wrong.” I wish they wouldn’t.”
While not directly criticizing McConnell, Jordan praised McCarthy for standing “on the side of the American people” and asserted that voters loathe the Senate’s recent bipartisan legislation: “Look at all the pushback.”
But on Capitol Hill, GOP senators have their own concerns about McCarthy’s approach. Some worry that he reflexively rejects good bills, ones that help the broader GOP fight a push by Democrats to paint him as obstructionist.
“I wish [McCarthy] would go deeper into the politics of some of these issues that we’ve come together on, understanding that they may want to make changes,” the senator said. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.), who has supported much of the Senate’s bipartisan agenda. “Just being against it unilaterally? I prefer to do things, put it that way.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (RW.Va.) listens during a Senate committee hearing in Washington. | Greg Nash/Pool
Democrats stay on the sidelines. He was asked if he beat McConnell, the Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer he replied, “We’re just doing what we have to do.” And if Democrats lose control of Congress, they will likely lose much of their power to divide the two Republican leaders next year.
That doesn’t mean McCarthy and McConnell are necessarily at odds. Continuing a tradition among Republican congressional leaders, they meet and speak frequently, about every two weeks. They stop going to each other’s offices and talk on the phone from time to time. In their latest conversation, McCarthy recalled warning McConnell to “stop introducing” any bill that includes more mandatory spending, an issue he has also raised privately with his own members about other legislation.
After news of a deal between Schumer and Manchin broke Wednesday, McCarthy chose to attack the manufacturing bill that McConnell had supported a day earlier, vowing Thursday that he “would be the first no vote in the board “. But despite efforts by the House GOP to encourage a no vote, 24 Republicans still voted in favor.
McConnell responded diplomatically in the shadow of the other chamber. He described his relationship with McCarthy as “great” and said: “No one is [pulling] harder than me for him to take back the House so we can stop the liberal agenda of the Biden administration.”
Still, the Senate GOP leader’s threat to derail a version of the microchip legislation if Democrats tried to pass a cross-party spending, tax and health care bill followed his vote for the same bill microchip bill hours before Democrats revived their deal with the senator. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) – caused quite a stir in the congressional GOP.
Asked if Democrats had tricked him into helping them with the microchip bill while secretly finalizing legislation he loathed, McConnell said “what they’ve produced is an absolute monstrosity and we’re going to be very aggressive on the “opposition”.
Other Republicans say the Schumer-Manchin deal would not have changed their vote on the microchip bill. Had he known that Senate Democrats had a deal with Manchin to end his agenda, Sen. Thom Tillis (RN.C.) said he still would have voted for the manufacturing measure, citing “strategic reasons” for national security.
A significant factor in the diverging paths of leaders: the different attitudes of their own base. McCarthy squandered a chance to become speaker in 2015 after he faced pushback from his right wing and whitewashed himself for commenting that the GOP’s investigations into Benghazi had politically harmed Hillary Clinton.
He’s taking no chances this time: To help keep conservatives on his side, McCarthy quickly mended fences with Trump after the Jan. 6 attack. He also opposed the codification of same-sex marriage; McConnell declined to disclose his position until now.
And whatever voters think of McCarthy’s “no” votes, Republicans say it’s helping him in the conference.
“Kevin has a good feel for these things. … He was a little bit ahead of the chips. So I think he was leading the House conference in the right direction,” the congressman said. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).
Meanwhile, McConnell has not spoken to the former president since December 2020. He has made no secret that he believes the party needs to move on from Trump’s stolen election lies. And the more complicated Senate map facing this fall makes courting swing voters more important to its members, which partly explains why it has joined Biden-backed infrastructure bills, gun safety and microchips.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has not spoken to former President Donald Trump since December 2020. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Asked about the divergence among Republican leaders, one Republican senator put it bluntly: “It’s all about the leadership race.” McConnell has yet to win any opposition in his bids for GOP leader, though he may face it next year as some Republican Senate candidates pledge not to support him.
As for McConnell’s support for key pieces of Biden’s legislative agenda, Sen. Kevin Cramer (RN.D.) described it in part as a “branding calculation” to help the GOP fend off Democratic attacks on the GOP as a blockade party.
Despite McConnell and McCarthy’s recent political splits, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, said the two GOP leaders express “mutual respect” for the other in private conversations with him. But he acknowledged that they face different dynamics in their respective chambers.
House Republicans always feel more immediate pressure from voters with elections every two years, with primaries tending to be the biggest threat. GOP senators represent entire states for six-year terms, giving them very different coalitions and electoral calculus.
“The Senate is focused on trying to get to 60 [votes], which means they have to get Democratic support. And a lot of our guys are just focused on what the perfect bill would look like,” Comer said in an interview. “McCarthy’s in a tough spot just because the dynamic is different.”
A fellow Kentucky GOP Rep. Andy Barr argued that McConnell’s positions are motivated by one goal: to regain the majority. Even as conservatives wallowed in each of the Biden-backed bills McConnell has blessed, many Republican aides believe those decisions removed potentially damaging campaign issues from Senate races they need to win this fall.
“His job is to get the majority. His job is to become the majority leader of the Senate,” Barr said in an interview. “There’s a lot to play in the long game … and he’s playing chess, not checkers.”
