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.
True, but she has NOT been a reliable anti-Commie Rat. That has become abundantly clear. He speech fell short of justifying her vote against Kavanaugh. It was obvious she was trying to obfuscate her alleged deliberations with impressive sounding verbiage. The trouble is, she was just smacking her gums. When she came down to declaring her reason(s) for opposing the confirmation, there was absolutely no substance to her conclusion. . . completely devoid of sound reasoning.
I believe the right candidate will now expose her vulnerability.
Impressive or suspicious?
She barely won as a write in. The fact that she’s really a Democrat was not as obvious then either.
So, since the Senate Majority Leader believes that she’s a shoe-in in her seat, her party election support and relevant committee assignments can be given to other Senators instead at no negative impact to Sen. Murkowski.
I believe she won with a paltry 44 percent!!!!
WTH is McConnell’s problem.
Barely won as a write in is like Appalachian State beating Michigan
Rare....very rare
I’m sure to freepers it’s suspicious
You have common sense Drew
Free Republic is like well meaning immaturity sometimes when folks are angry
Could Sarah Palin beat her
I don’t know she’d have to campaign there and it’s a long way from the limelight
I think Palin prefers being what she does
Political Celebrity
Alas! He’s probably right....she was off the ballot and won as an Independent via write-ins...now he’s being diplomatic by not pissing her off any more than need be...politics is why dogs eat their own puke...anything is palatable if it suits the agenda...even for some of our side. Mitch still has my gratitude for his work on the courts and I’ll do my best to not bad mouth him at least for the rest of the year...
in a three way race as write-in. Those are some pretty impressive numbers.
Still a write in
Guess how many have won in nations history?
For 115 years.....TWO.....including her
Someone liked her there
That’s what they said about Hilary Clinton. Trump is in the business of beating people that “nobody can beat”. Murkowski’s history come 2022.
Her appeal
Her name I guess
She was cute younger in athletic way
Typical woman....she did the sister thing and believed that baby dolled voice six year old pretender who passed herself off as being raped or almost killed at 15
I watched that silly testimony
Zero credibility
Pathological lady
A nut
How could anyone believe her.
Very few had the stones to challenge her veracity publicly....it was sickening to hear conservatives support her to any degree
I hope Alaska beats her...rhetorically
Well, Cocaine Mitch is back to normal. That didn’t take long.
In a sane world, Murkowski would be stripped of any committees she is part of and relegated to a back bench.
Ohhhh...she might go over to the Dems? How on earth would that be any different from what she has been doing????
He’s not wrong that she’s built a very effective patronage army that could even undo the result of a primary with write-ins. It will have to be a Palin, a Parnell or someone who can not only beat her in the primary but beat her in the general when democrats are allowed to cross over and vote for her.
Don’t be a stupid jerk now, Mitch! She is a CHEATER!! That guy with the beard BEAT her in a PRIMARY!!
Not sure why, is Alaska that leftist?
This.
Murkowski must be between a rock and a hard place.
I think she was trying to appease the native population up there. Not because the actual natives vote — because they don’t. The only thing I can figure is that the extremely wealthy native organizations are pumping money into her coffers.
The regular folks up there most likely love what Trump has done re ANWR, and they do vote. But they don’t have the millions to for over to her campaign.
It would be interesting to see a diagram of her mental flow chart when making her decision to vote the way she did.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.