Trump Rips McConnell for Supporting Murkowski

Former President Donald Trump slammed Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday for funding pro-impeachment Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) reelection bid against challenger Kelly Tshibaka with $9 million instead of other swing state candidates, like Republican Blake Masters in Arizona.

“Kelly Tshibaka is doing very well in Alaska, probably leading horrendously bad Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican (barely!),” Trump stated in a press release. “The Democrat has no chance, and yet the Old Broken Crow, Mitchell McConnell, is authorizing $9 Million Dollars to be spent in order to beat a great Republican, Kelly, instead of $9 Million Dollars that could be used for Blake Masters, and other Republicans, that with this money would beat their Democrat opponent. Isn’t it ironic?”

Trump’s statement is notable because it highlights McConnell’s priority of aiding an embattled establishment ally on Capitol Hill rather than using the same funds to reclaim the Senate from Democrats.

Tshibaka and Murkowski are in a very close race with just 28 days left before the election. Polls show both candidates tied and within the margin of error, even though Murkowski has spent about $7.5 million more dollars than Tshibaka, who has out-raised the incumbent with in-state contributions.

Eighty-five percent of Murkowski’s funds have come from out-of-state donors, such as McConnell and other establishment allies. The large percentage of the money raised by Murkowski outside the state raises questions about where her interests lie. The establishment senator has voted nine times with Democrats in the last two years and has vowed to assist President Joe Biden’s agenda move forward if she is elected.

Meanwhile, Trump-endorsed Republican Blake Masters in Arizona is in a tough but winnable race against establishment Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), whose voting record matches socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over 90 percent of the time in the 2021-2022 campaign cycle.

Kelly remains vulnerable because, as the incumbent, he has been unable to secure enough undecided voters, a problem for any incumbent in a race. Many voters will vote against the incumbent because of his or her voting record.

Kelly’s is particularly noteworthy. He cast the deciding vote for President Joe Biden’s wasteful spending that fueled inflation. He enabled Biden to spend nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money on stimulus checks to criminals in prison, which includes the Boston Marathon Bomber. He voted for Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” that will raise taxes and fund the IRS’s 87,000 new agents. He voted four times to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline. He also supported a ban on fracking three times.

On immigration, he voted three times to defund the construction of the southern border wall. He refused to renew Title 42, a Trump-era border policy. He declined to hire 18,000 Border Patrol agents before any new IRS agents are hired. He broke his promise to force the Biden administration to fund the Arizona National Guard troops stationed at the border by the state.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.

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