Senate Republicans are showing their support for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) amid a downpour of criticism from President Donald Trump.
GOP Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.) were among those to tweet their support for McConnell.
Antonia Ferrier, who as staff director of the Senate Republican Communications Center forms part of McConnell’s press operation, retweeted many of the lawmakers’ posts on Friday. (Ferrier has not responded to HuffPost’s request for comment.)
But Matt Whitlock, communications director for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), denied there was any kind of organized effort to get behind the Senate majority leader.
Trump has leveled several attacks against McConnell since Senate Republicans failed to pass a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Even after he left for vacation last week, the president tweeted about McConnell multiple times, telling him to “get back to work.”
While speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump suggested he might ask McConnell to step down from his position in Senate leadership if the senator fails to deliver soon on health care, tax reform or infrastructure legislation.
On Wednesday, McConnell told reporters that Trump has “excessive expectations” for lawmakers, likely because of his lack of political experience.
“Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. And I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell said while speaking at an event in Kentucky. “So part of the reason I think people feel we’re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines — unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating — may not have been fully understood.”
Before You Go
