McConnell has 'given up' on Trump's re-election and is making plans to handcuff Biden: columnist

In a column for the Washington Post, longtime political observer Paul Waldman pondered the fact that Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both know that the economy is headed for another collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic unless Congress comes up with another stimulus package -- and yet they seem in no hurry to avert the fall.

Viewing their intransigence, Waldman admits it "seems like a crazy question to ask, they face an electoral catastrophe that might be mitigated by easing America’s economic pain," but they seem more interested in small political victories rather trying to stop the inevitable downward spiral if they don't step in and agree to another massive bail-out.

In the case of Trump, the columnist said the president is hampered by his "combination of ignorance and his own peculiar personality flaws," and "simply doesn’t understand what the country needs."

McConnell, he suggests, has other reasons.

Writing, "He [McConnell] has already given up on the idea of Trump being reelected, and he’s planning for the future," Waldman said the Kentucky Republican would rather the economy continue to flounder about under the current president and let former Vice President Joe Biden inherit a mess -- then blame him if he doesn't clean it up quickly.

As Waldman wrote, "McConnell knows what’s happening. He has surely looked around and realized that with the pandemic surging, there is simply no way the economy is going to come roaring back before November," adding that McConnell, "...understands that the odds his party will retain control of the Senate are probably 50-50 at best."

"From where he [McConnell] sits, the best outcome now may be to use the next stimulus package to win some minor ideological victories, but not allow it to be substantial enough to set the stage for a genuine recovery," he wrote before suggesting,  "... if and when Biden becomes president in 2021, the situation will be no less dire than it is now — and maybe more so. And the worse things are in the country at that point, the better it is for Republicans. Just as they did when Barack Obama was president, they can blame Democrats for their own mistakes, then force austerity measures that sabotage the economy and slow the recovery."

Adding that only someone who was singularly "amoral" would be willing to allow the continuing destruction of the country to advance his personal agenda , Waldman dryly stated: "In other words, you’d have to be Mitch McConnell."

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