McConnell speculated last week about the time period after Judge Amy Coney Barrett's expected confirmation later this month when the GOP might face a 2021 fight against possible Democratic efforts to "pack the court" with more justices should former Vice President Joe Biden win the White House.
"Believe me, they'll do it if they can," McConnell told reporters when voting early in Kentucky on Thursday. "If I'm the majority leader, it will not come up."
The comment underscored how he views the Republican-controlled Senate as a last line of defense, according to those within his advisory orbit. At the same time, however, a Biden presidency represents a chance at a final and larger legacy that could spawn major bipartisan deals.
Recent polls and independent analyses show Democrats with a better than 50-50 chance of flipping the necessary number of seats (three if Biden wins, four if Trump does) to retake the upper chamber.
Jessica Taylor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Democrats are "the clear favorite" to win back the Senate. And a GOP strategist who focuses on congressional races called the political environment "very difficult ... across the map" for Republicans due to years of Trump's tweets, his behavior and, more recently, his widely panned debate performance late last month.
"A lot of our people who are suburban Republican voters aren't huge Trump fans and they aren't turned off by Biden in the way they may have been by Hillary Clinton," the McConnell source said. "Remember, the economy benefits from stability in Washington so they're making a vote for stability in this country. But also they don't want to trade four years of Trump craziness for four years of socialist craziness."
With Election Day less than three weeks away, McConnell and other Senate Republicans have taken more deliberate steps to distance themselves from Trump.
The majority leader said recently he hadn't been to the White House for weeks because of lax coronavirus protocols, a revelation that seemed to undercut the president's message that he deserves "an A-plus" for his handling of the pandemic.
It's a balancing act for Republican Senate candidates running for re-election in battleground states who need the GOP base to win as well as a significant share of independents who may be turned off by Trump's rhetoric, behavior and policies.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-BB1a7Wsw
I forgot that senators are also up for the vote.
