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Republican senators lashed into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s effort to end the Ukraine war by drawing in Russia, thrusting a glaring ideological divide within the party into public view.Sen. Mitch McConnell — one of three Republicans to oppose Hegseth’s confirmation — led the criticism at a Senate budget hearing. “America’s reputation is on the line,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Will we defend democratic allies against authoritarian aggressors?”The former Senate majority leader — who now chairs the panel that controls defense funding — leveled some of his strongest warnings yet at the Pentagon chief during...

The first Democrat is now officially running for Sen. Mitch McConnell's seat. Pamela Stevenson, the top-ranking Democrat in the Republican-led Kentucky House, has launched her bid for the seat. Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel, has served in the state House since 2021. Republican and former attorney general, Daniel Cameron, is also running for McConnell's seat. There are several other Republicans considering running, including Congressman Andy Barr. McConnell announced in February he would not seek re-election. His term ends in January 2027.

Vice President JD Vance lit up Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after the senator voted against the nomination of Elbridge Colby to serve as Under Secretary of Policy at the Defense Department, describing the move as a grand display of “political pettiness.”“Mitch’s vote today — like so much of the last few years of his career — is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vance said, as Colby’s nomination brought out the worst of globalists.In a statement explaining his vote against President Donald Trump’s choice, McConnell asserted that Colby’s public record “suggests a willingness to discount...

US District Judge of the District Court for the District of Rhode Island, John McConnell, an Obama appointee, accused President Trump of violating his court order blocking his federal funding freeze. In January Judge McConnell temporarily blocked Trump’s freeze on federal funding in response to a request from 22 Democrat state attorneys general and DC. Trump’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) previously put a temporary pause of agency grant, loan and other financial assistance programs. “The American people elected Donald J. Trump to be President of the United States and gave him a mandate to increase the impact of...

An organization comprised of life-long Republicans unveiled a new TV ad Thursday morning, taking aim at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for recently blocking election security bills as officials continue to warn about ongoing Russian efforts to subvert U.S. elections. The minute-long video, created by Republicans for the Rule of Law, comes as Democrats have blasted McConnell and other Senate Republicans for blocking votes on various House-passed measures that would, among other things, provide additional federal funding to states and would require post-election audits, back-up paper ballots and the notification of federal authorities about any offers from foreign entities to...

Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday suggested President Trump’s refusal to blame Russia as the sole aggressor who provoked the war in Ukraine “reflects a gross misunderstanding of the nature of negotiations and leverage.” McConnell declared in a statement marking the three-year anniversary of the war that the “human catastrophe rests solely on Vladimir Putin” and that if Ukrainian forces laid down their arms, “Putin’s aims would not stop with Kyiv.” “Mistaking this fact is as embarrassing as it is costly,” McConnell said. He also criticized what he called the Biden administration’s “shameful hesitation and half-measures” in...

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader and the most consequential Republican senator of his generation, will announce Thursday he will not seek reelection next year, according to people briefed on his plans.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) touted bringing home the bacon to Kentucky and his “unfinished business” perpetuating a national defense strategy crafted in the 1980s in a Senate floor speech Thursday announcing his retirement. McConnell, who turned 83 Thursday, has been expected to retire following his resignation under pressure as Senate Republican Leader in early 2024, but reports of his upcoming retirement announcement Thursday morning still reverberated across Washington. In his speech, the longtime Senate leader told colleagues, “I’ve only really answered to two constituencies, the Republican Conference and the people of Kentucky.

Trump broke Mitch McConnell. He woke up today, announced he won’t be running for re-election, and then he voted YES to confirm Kash Patel! Good turtle

Sen. Mitch McConnell, 83, announced on Thursday that he will not be seeking reelection to the Senate. 'Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate,' McConnell said on the Senate floor. 'Every day in between I've been humbled by the trust they've placed in me to do their business right here,' he said. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last,' he continued. McConnell, the longest-serving GOP Senate leader, first entered the Senate in 1985, but...

Most of the time, when Donald Trump bashes you, it’s over. When it’s done behind the seal of the presidency, it’s doubly over. For Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who’s no longer the leader of the Senate Republicans, the man is, politically speaking, a dead man walking. His approval numbers are absolute garbage, and he’s solidified his reputation as being the “odd man out” among Republicans when he voted against Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard for secretary of defense, Health and Human Services secretary, and director of national intelligence respectively.

Well, this is interesting. What a surprise. Dirty Judge Jack McConnell, who believes he was recently elected US president, halted President Trump’s current spending freeze. But Judge McConnell is not some innocent bystander. Judge McConnell’s organization has received $117.6 million in government funding in total (ending in 2023). Maybe that’s why he wanted the money to keep flowing. He’s expecting several more million this year! The Gateway Pundit previously reported on this radical far-left judge who called President Trump a “tyrant” and decries racism as a “white people problem.” ... America First Legal has uncovered damning evidence that federal Judge...

Andy Barr would begin with a federal campaign account affording him millions of dollars but have to confront the reality that he’s little known to most of Kentucky. Daniel Cameron could ride the familiarity of having run statewide twice but carries the scars from his humbling loss in the governor’s race. And Nate Morris would occupy the outsider’s lane of a non-politician but soon find himself answering questions about his stewardship of a Lexington company now struggling financially. Kentucky’s senior senator, Mitch McConnell, has yet to verbalize his expected exit from the U.S. Senate in 2027, but that hasn’t stopped...

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is speaking out against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, warning that starting trade wars with U.S. economic partners could force higher costs on American families and businesses. Trump’s “aggressive proposals leave big, lingering concerns for American industry and workers,” the senator from Kentucky wrote in an op-ed Wednesday in Louisville’s Courier-Journal. The op-ed is a rare example of a senior Republican in Congress who is willing to publicly criticize the president’s economic strategy. Trump, who has called tariff his “favorite word,” recently slapped broad import duties on Canada, Mexico and China, plus additional tariffs on...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) voted on Wednesday with Democrat colleagues against confirming Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence. McConnell’s vote underscores his repeated opposition to President Donald Trump and his America First policies. He previously voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation in January. McConnell was the only Republican to vote “no” on Trump’s nomination. Every Democrat voted “no.” Despite Democrat and McConnell’s opposition, the Senate confirmed Gabbard’s nomination by a vote of 52-48.

Judge McConnell is an activist who has no business sitting in judgement of the president or his administration.

From haleytalbotcnn

The federal judge who suggested Trump administration officials could face criminal contempt over the spending freeze on Monday is a Democrat donor... McConnell donated hundreds of thousands to Democratic campaigns and political action committees, including 2008 presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, according to Federal Election Commission records. He also donated over $8,000 to Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s 2006 senate campaign. McConnell volunteered as director of the Rhode Island branch of Planned Parenthood for four years, according to Roll Call.

Feb 10 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to fully comply with a previous order lifting its broad freeze on federal spending, after a group of 23 Democratic state attorneys general last week said that some funds remained frozen. U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, ruled that, opens new tab all funding must be restored at least until he can hold a hearing on the states' motion for a longer-term order. The Trump administration had told states that it believed the order did not apply to certain environmental and infrastructure spending, and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge found Monday that the Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending and told the White House to release all the money. U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell ruled that ongoing struggles to get federal money for things like early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research violated his Jan. 31 order. He ordered the Trump administration to “immediately take every step necessary” to follow his temporary restraining over halting its plans for a sweeping freeze of federal funding....... The Justice Department argued, however, his ruling applied to a sweeping...