National Harbor, Md. -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walked onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference with a rifle and a promise: that he will lead the upper chamber better than it's run now, if he gets the chance.
"If I'm given the opportunity to lead the U.S. Senate next year, I won’t let you down," McConnell said. “I will lead with integrity, we will fight tooth and nail for conservative reform to put this country back on track, we’ll debate our ideas openly, we will vote without fear and we will govern with the understanding that the future of this country depends upon our success."
There are a few things standing in the way of McConnell leading the Senate next year. First, he faces a primary challenge, and then a Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes. The GOP would have to retake the majority in the Senate, and McConnell would have to be selected. He gave a pitch for why he should be, attacking the president and current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).
"The president of the United State is treating our Constitution worse than a placemat at Denny’s," McConnell said early on in his brief remarks.
He said Reid is running a “smear campaign” by questioning some of the Obamacare horror stories reported in the media, which he also said is intent on defending the majority leader. “Harry Reid has spent two weeks calling American men and women whose lives were upended by Obamacare a bunch of liars,” he said. “If ever there was an advertisement for a Republican Senate, this is it.”