Andrea Mitchell: 'We are going to have to put Mitch McConnell on a milk carton' because he's missing amid shutdown

MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell observed on Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seems to be missing amid a government shutdown and President Donald Trump's threat to declare a nation emergency over immigration.

"The House has acted [to end the shutdown]," Mitchell told Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on her Tuesday show. "We're going to have to put Mitch McConnell on a milk carton soon because nobody has seen the Senate majority leader. Why will he not bring anything to the floor?"

"I have no idea," Manchin lamented. "Over many years I've been amazed to see Congress abdicating its responsibilities of what it's supposed to do under the Constitution. We're giving more powers and more powers to the executive, not just President Trump but many executives before him."

"Are you hearing there are more Republicans, besides Susan Collins and Cory Gardner, are more Republican senators going to say to their leader, we have to vote on something?" Mitchell wondered.

Manchin declined to speak on behalf of Republican senators, but he predicted that outcry over the shutdown would soon become "insurmountable."

"I'm hoping that they will," the senator remarked. "But it's a shame. We can avoid all this, Andrea. This is all avoidable."

Watch the video below from MSNBC.