U.S. Vice President JD Vance attends a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
Vice President JD Vance led a barrage of MAGA-inspired attacks against Sen. Mitch McConnell on Tuesday in a rare public rebuke of the former Republican leader over his refusal to support a key Pentagon nominee.
The war of words ignited shortly after McConnell found himself the lone Republican vote against Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s selection to be the Defense Department’s top policy strategist.
“Make no mistake: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline,” McConnell said in a statement that was quickly circulated on social media.
“Mitch’s vote today—like so much of the last few years of his career—is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vance wrote in a social media post.
But the vice president was hardly the only figure inside MAGA world to lash out at McConnell.
“Elbridge Colby is one of the brightest foreign policy minds in the GOP and it's pathetic watching Mitch McConnell continue to stand with Dems to sabotage President Trump,” Kentucky businessman Nate Morris wrote on X. “This is why whoever replaces Mitch for Senate needs to represent a clean break from him - Time for a change!”
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Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) replied to Vance’s post: “Glad things are changing.”
Far-right outlet Breitbart News referred to McConnell as “China-linked Senator Mitch McConnell” in an X post blasted to its followers.
“MITCH MCCONNELL IS A TRAITOR !!” MAGA follower David Hardin declared on X.
Colby passed Senate confirmation with a 54-45 vote, according to media reports.
McConnell suggested in his lengthy statement on Tuesday that Colby’s confirmation could “do irreparable damage to the system of alliances and partnerships” at the Pentagon.
“As I have expressed repeatedly, I remain committed to supporting national security nominees whose records and views make them assets, not liabilities, in the restoration of U.S. hard power,” he said.