POLITICS: Conservative Leaders Call for Entire GOP Senate Leadership to Step Down

A group of conservative leaders announced at a press conference today that they had sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) calling on him and the other four members of the Senate Republican leadership team to step down over their failure to keep their promises.

“We call on all five members of the GOP leadership to step down or for their caucus to remove them as soon as possible,” said Senate Conservatives Fund President Ken Cuccinelli, who formerly served as attorney general of Virginia.

In addition to McConnell, the other Senate Republican leaders are Assistant Republican Leader John Cornyn (Texas), Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.), Republican Conference Vice Chairman Roy Blunt (Mo.), and Republican Policy Committee Chairman John Barrasso (Wy.)

“This pattern of failure of McConnell’s gang of five leadership team, while loathing and attacking their own base, the most loyal block of voters that has elected them, and all of their caucus members, can no longer be tolerated,” Cuccinelli said.

“It’s time for new leadership,” said Freedom Works President Adam Brandon.

“Mitch McConnell has been a failure in the Senate and has cost Republicans almost a year of victories,” Brandon said. “He has demonstrated that he either does not understand the frustration coming from conservatives and the urgency of passing key legislation–or he does not care.”

Cuccinelli and Brandon were joined at the press conference by Brent Bozell, Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin and ForAmerica President David Bozell. ConservativeHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie did not attend the press conference but co-signed the letter to McConnell calling on the Republican leaders to step down.

“The Senate under the leadership of Mitch McConnell has done nothing to honor their promises,” said Brent Bozell. “Even worse, this Senate leadership has nothing on the horizon to honor these promises. It’s shocking that apparently the Senate leadership is virtually incapable or never had any intention of keeping faith with the American people. It’s been an absolute betrayal.”

“We entered 2017 with a once in a lifetime opportunity to launch a new and exciting era of tremendous growth and a restoration of freedom,” said Bozell. “We’re now in October 2017. Nothing has been done to reduce the size and power of the federal government. Nothing has been done to stop the slow bankruptcy that the federal deficit is bringing. Nothing has been done to stop the flow of illegal immigration and influx of terrorism. Nothing has been done on tax reform. And most disgusting of all, nothing has been done to stop Obamacare. And it’s because Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP Senate and their so called ‘leadership.’”

“It must be made clear, Republicans now own everything in the federal government. Every useless agency, every penny of wasteful spending, every debacle, every immoral program. All of these things belong to the Republican Party,” Bozell said.

Bozell also said that if McConnell does not step down “we foresee a scorched Earth disaster from a furious Republican base that will take it out on elected officials 2018 and in 2020. It will begin simply by staying home, and rightfully so.”

Jenny Beth Martin noted that the Republican Senate has so far confirmed only seven judges since President Trump has been in office.

“There are more than 100 vacancies in the federal judiciary and there are more vacancies today then there were on the day that Donald Trump was sworn in as president,” said Martin. “Because the Senate has taken off so much time they’ve only confirmed six, six nominees not named Gorsuch.”

“Mitch McConnell has had his chance. The entire Senate Republican leadership has had their chance,” said Martin. “They have failed to deliver.

“It is time for Mitch and the leadership to go,” she said.

Brandon said that the Republican leadership, not the Democrats, are ultimately to blame for obstructing the Senate.

“So, what I am anticipating is in a few months, on the campaign trail, what we’re going to be hearing about is that there’s Democratic obstructionism. It’s not an excuse,” said Brandon. “We can’t blame the Democrats on this one.”

ForAmerica President David Bozell said a football coach would be fired for performing as poorly as McConnell and Republican leaders have.

“The time for Senators to start seriously demanding a leadership change is now. Mitch McConnell and the leadership team are as toxic as ever, beyond repair,” said Bozell.

“If this was a football team and you’ve lost this many times, you’d start firing the coaches. When a corporate enterprise sees its stock sink like a stone, the board fires the CEOs to stop the bleeding,” he said.

David Bozell noted that the Senate has not taken any action to defund Planned Parenthood or bring up for a vote the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

“But there are two issues on the cultural front that also require our attention: The Pain Capable bill and Planned Parenthood,” said Bozell.

“Reasonable people can disagree on the larger issue of abortion, but science has proven that 20 week-old babies in the womb can feel the pain and torture of being aborted,” Bozell said. “The House, addressing the scientific community’s concerns and consensus, has passed the Pain Capable Act three times. President Trump has publicly stated his eagerness to sign this legislation.

“Not only will the leadership team not lift a finger to sell this bill, and help end these atrocities, Senator John Cornyn deemed Pain Capable to be ‘not a short-term priority,’ all but declaring the bill dead-on-arrival, even though the bill enjoys 64 percent approval from the public,” Bozell said.

“Defunding the abortion mill Planned Parenthood is another promise leadership has failed to deliver on,” he said.

[Brent Bozell also serves as president of the Media Research Center of which CNSNews.com is a part.]

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/craig-millward/conservative-leaders-call-entire-senate-leadership-step-down