Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) offered a dose of cordiality Thursday afternoon to his colleague, former Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) amid reporting he will not seek another term in office.
Murphy, while speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper, took a shot at McConnell over his moral convictions, arguing that he bears much of the responsibility for the GOP allowing Trump to remain the central figure in the party and set him up to run for his second term.
"I want to get your reaction to Mitch McConnell announcing he's not going to seek re-election," said Tapper. "I know you've disagreed with him on a number of policy fronts and strategic pursuits by the conservative movement. He is one of the few Republicans saying anything challenging at all about President Trump. How do you think the Senate will be different without him there?"
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"Well, listen, I appreciate the votes that Mitch McConnell has taken," said Murphy. "I appreciate the fact that over the last four years, he was willing to reach out to Democrats. We got the bipartisan gun bill done in 2022 that has reduced gun violence rates in this country by 20 percent, because Mitch McConnell wanted to do something in a bipartisan way on the issue of violence in this country."
Nonetheless, Murphy continued, "Nobody's going to forget the fact that after the riots in 2021, he had the chance to vote to impeach Donald Trump and deny Trump the chance to be back in the White House. Had Mitch McConnell decided to vote for impeachment, enough Republicans would have followed him to get that number above the requisite two-thirds."
"So his legacy is going to be very mixed," Murphy added. "He is the reason why Donald Trump is president today, albeit with a record that also includes a lot of bipartisan accomplishment that he helped make possible during the Biden administration."
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