Posted on 10/10/2018 8:25:24 AM PDT by Signalman
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that “nobody’s going to beat” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska despite her opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.
In an interview with The Associated Press, McConnell disputed President Donald Trump’s prediction that Alaskans “will never forgive” Murkowski and that she’ll “never recover” politically after bucking her party on Kavanaugh. Murkowski voted against advancing Kavanaugh’s nomination and “present” on the final vote.
“She’s certainly going to recover,” McConnell said. He pointed out that Murkowski won re-election as a write-in vote in 2010.
“She’s about as strong as you can possibly be in Alaska. Nobody’s going to beat her,” the Kentucky Republican added. “I’m proud that she’s in the Republican conference.”
His remarks on Murkowski were part of a wide-ranging interview in which McConnell acknowledged that the extended fight over confirming Kavanaugh has widened an existing gender gap in which Republicans trail Democrats in support among women.
McConnell says the gender gap is “clearly is wider than it used to be,” but says the controversy over Kavanaugh could end up helping Republicans by generating more enthusiasm among GOP voters who feel he was mistreated.
Kavanaugh was accused of sexual misconduct in high school and college. He denied the allegations.”
Heading into the November midterms, the GOP is defending its House and Senate majorities. Only six of the 51 Republicans in the Senate are women.
The 76-year-old McConnell, who’s been in the Senate since 1985 and majority leader since 2015, said he wants more women in the Senate and on the Judiciary Committee in particular. He called the dearth of women Republican candidates winning elections “a great frustration” and said those in the Senate now “just haven’t been interested” in serving on the panel that confirms judges and justices.
McConnell said he found Christine Blasey Ford’s account of her sexual assault “convincing” but noted that there had been no corroboration that her assailant was Kavanaugh.
“The very notion of presumption of innocence was on trial” during his confirmation battle, McConnell told the AP.
We’ll see about that.
She’s not up for over 3 years, people have short memories unless she bucks another vote in the next year or 2.
She’s not even up for re-election until 2022, it’s too far off for me to even be that concerned about right now.
McConnell and the Bush League Republicans saved her last time she lost a primary to keep her as an Amnesty Senator.
Hey Turtleface, wanna bet?
He’s realistic
She won a write in vote is pretty impressive
This McConnell interview reminded me of all the reasons I dislike The Turtle.
What’s her appeal? I don’t know much about her.
She won a write in vote is pretty impressive
He knew he had the votes for Kavanaugh without her. He doesn't want her to flip, which would be tempting if she was completely ostracized from the party. That could potentially be devastating.
Sad but true...
Already Primaried here, and she won as a write in in the General.. she’s not going anywhere...
What we have to do is make sure there are enough R’s in the Senate that we never have to depend on her vote to get things done.
Well, somebody did, with an ugly stick...
Sounds like an honest assessment of the situation. He might be wrong, but I think he’s looking at it tactically.
She won as a write-in candidate last time around, beating both the Republican and Democrat nominees, so McConnell may be right. She caucuses with the Republicans, but she’s basically an independent who leans left.
Mitch doesn’t want her to flip to the Democrats. Wait till after the midterms and we have more GOP Senators, she will be isolated.
Best way to deal with people like her is to elect a strong working majority that robs her of swing vote status and makes her vote on any given issue irrelevant
That said, Sara Palin could take her in 2024 if she really wants to
Guess Alaskans love their pork.
Bingo.
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