With Reid seething in the wings, Biden and McConnell began crafting a compromise. But you know what? And McConnell has changed his views: “Justice Taney was the author of one of the worst decisions (the Dred Scott decision) in American history,” McConnell said in a statement to POLITICO. Many progressive Democrats argue that they should simply eliminate the Senate filibuster rule, which would enable to Democrats to pass their agenda with no Republican votes. "What the problem is here is the unwillingness of the Speaker to make a deal.". but we can sure shoot ’em down. Bush hosted by Saudi Arabia’s ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. McConnell’s aides fumed this winter when reports of Obama’s remarks spread in November. Biden had the grip and grin of a salesman, while McConnell displayed a tactician’s discipline climbing up the leadership ladder. “I thought that would have been the best thing to do, because the conversation would not have been about raising taxes, which it became, it would have been about lowering taxes.”, Top: Biden speaks during a rally in Ottumwa, Iowa, Jan. 2, 2008. Barrett ultimately became a Supreme Court Justice one week before Election Day. Among these institutionalists, outsiders just don’t get it, whether they’re an earnest reformer like Obama or an imperious novice like Trump. In later years, his sons joined his inner circle, as well, along with longtime aides like Ted Kaufman and Mike Donilon. That’s because they reject the Beltway narrative that McConnell would have been more open to compromise during the Obama years if the president had been a back-slapper, like his vice president. That’s because between them and their agenda stands McConnell, an acknowledged master of Senate procedures, famed for his ability to block presidential agendas. The Bork defeat had a profound impact on McConnell. He got his voicemail. | AP Photo/John Duricka. Earlier this month, the majority leader told Senate Republicans that he urged the White House against making a deal on a large coronavirus stimulus bill ahead of the election, a source familiar confirmed to CBS News. In the final week before election day, McConnell spoke to a crowd in Florence, Kentucky, saying McGrath represents a possible liberal takeover of the Senate. But Biden’s team believes there are some hopeful tea leaves in McConnell and his wife’s repudiation of Trump after the 45th president sicced his supporters on the Senate chamber itself earlier this month. First published on November 3, 2020 / 9:20 PM. “A majority of senators have never served in a functional Senate,” said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a close Biden ally and friend. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images. McConnell, who is known as one of the wiliest politicians in Washington, soon reframed the narrative as a personal success story. He is the key to the new president’s ability to turn the page from the Trump years. “I wanted to go over the cliff,” Reid said later. We can sure shoot ’em down.”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shakes hands with Vice President Mike Pence in front of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during a visit to Capitol Hill, July 10, 2018. "Look, I know how to make deals. McConnell’s aides even believed President Ronald Reagan was wary of endorsing him in 1984, both because he thought McConnell would lose to the moderate Democrat Huddleston and was not much more conservative than Huddleston, to boot. Taking to the Senate floor in October 1987, a furious McConnell contended that the defeat of Bork meant the Senate should be honest about its new standard for Supreme Court picks. the friday cover. “To the extent that I ever praised him, that was a mistake.”, One person who seems to agree with Obama is McConnell’s first wife, Sherrill Redmon. In the 2012 elections, not only was Obama reelected, but Democrats maintained control of the Senate and kept McConnell relegated to being minority leader. Biden arrives at the House of Commons in London, Jan. 12, 1988, for a courtesy call on Britain's Labour Party and opposition leader Neil Kinnock, whose words Biden was accused of plagiarizing the year before. McConnell, of course, voted to acquit Trump at his latest impeachment trial but then accused the former president of being "practically and morally responsible for … “The issue was not a lack of schmoozing. “Deal, deal, deal,” McCain cheered. But whether it breaks any political logjams remains unclear. So do you need a vaccine card? Biden was again dispatched to lower the temperature and the pair clinched a deal to avoid going over the cliff—one that thrilled most Republicans. Biden has so far appeared resistant to that idea, but allies say that doesn’t mean he’s ruled it out. Now, eight years later, Biden and McConnell are entering a new phase of their 36-year relationship, and the Democratic left fears a repeat of the 2012 dynamic. https://t.co/T6GArkvEPf pic.twitter.com/hrzv6Qt9ud. Meanwhile, Biden’s allies are loudly insisting that finding common ground is possible and exactly what the American people want after the past decade of partisan warfare. Much like Obama’s “change we can believe in” promises in 2008, Biden has made restoring some bipartisanship the marker of his own success. “They didn’t win the Bork fight until the [Brett] Kavanaugh fight,” Gitenstein said. Unlike 2012, they have a slim majority in the House, as well. Nonetheless, they seem destined to be bargaining for half a loaf, at best, for anything that requires 60 votes in the Senate, the level necessary to defeat a filibuster. He considered running for president again in 2004 and then ran and lost in 2008. “He was explicitly and openly willing to be that person. He did not succeed. © 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. According to Bush’s account, he snapped back at McConnell, “I will not withdraw troops unless military conditions warrant.” Bush later wrote, “I made it clear I would set troop levels to achieve victory in Iraq, not victory at the polls.”. That’s a special challenge for McConnell, who is already at odds with the Trumpian wing of the Republican Party after defying Trump on Biden’s victory and even privately being open to impeaching him. Washington friends aren’t normal friends. Instead, he homed in on issues like married couples being able to buy contraceptives, grilling Bork on his past criticisms of the court’s reasoning in Griswold v. Connecticut, which declared that couples had a right to use contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancies. “That was so offensive,” said Mullins Grissom. McConnell would also be the only Republican senator to attend the funeral of Biden’s beloved eldest son, Beau, in 2015. But She spent a large portion of that money in ads against her primary challenger, Charles Booker, a state representative. Once again, their party wields most of the levers of government. “Even though the Senate has at various times made purely political decisions in its consideration of Supreme Court nominees, certainly it could not be successfully argued that this is an acceptable practice,” he wrote. A cascade of deadlines on December 31, 2012, set up a world economy-level battle known as the “fiscal cliff.” Without any action by Congress, the next year would bring about $700 billion in combined tax hikes and budget cuts—extreme austerity measures that could cripple the recovering economy. Senator-elect Mitch McConnell, Nov. 26, 1984, left, and Sen. Joe Biden, April 29, 1984, right. His willingness to deal is uncertain and will be determined first and foremost by what he feels is best for his members running in 2022 and 2024. Homes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi Are Reported Vandalized. “Biden understood the art of the deal and Obama did not.”. “But if I am nothing else, I am practical.”. McConnell, Furman believes, could be a willing partner in the basics—getting budgets passed in a timely manner, not playing chicken with the debt ceiling, and other incremental, good government measures. | AP Photos. Like Biden, who began his Senate career by surprising the pundits with a razor-thin, upset win over two-term Republican Sen. J. Caleb Boggs, McConnell surprised much of the political world by edging out two-term Democrat Walter “Dee” Huddleston in the 1984 Senate race in Kentucky. McConnell’s racial politics have been forward-looking by the standards of Southern Republicans but have not been without blemishes, either. Biden’s and McConnell’s paths crossed, Those dramatic 36 hours of political and economic. Asked for examples, the adviser pointed to second-tier issues like infrastructure spending and broadband internet access. “From [Reid’s] perspective, the cliff was just sort of an American problem or a world problem, and that Democrats shouldn't have to sort of offer something up to Republicans because they were holding it hostage,” recalled a former Democratic leadership aide involved in the negotiations. Hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September, McConnell announced the Senate would take up the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, with the final vote taking place before the election despite objections from Democrats, who had been slamming Republicans for pushing Barrett's confirmation so close to Election Day. Despite being born nine months apart and sharing an interest in Senate history, the two men weren’t initially close during the 24 years they overlapped in the chamber, according to aides to both men. | Charles Dharapak-Pool/Getty Images. Mark Gitenstein, Biden’s chief counsel at the time, who later wrote a book on the Bork battle, said Biden’s explicit goal was preserving the legal precedents of the liberal Warren Court. Flattery,” he wrote in his memoir. Biden was a people pleaser, while McConnell at times reveled in criticism, even decorating an entire wall of his office with negative newspaper cartoons about himself. Children are in the spotlight in the coronavirus battle, Trump optimistic about GOP prospects in speech to donors, Army officer sues Virginia police over violent traffic stop. Alex Thompson is a White House reporter for POLITICO. | AP Photo/John Redman. Those dramatic 36 hours of political and economic brinkmanship in 2012 reverberate in 2021 as the two 78-year-old Senate bulls again find themselves facing off. McConnell adapted and waged an unrelenting, ultimately successful fight to remake the judiciary and the Supreme Court along conservative lines. CBS News projects Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won reelection in Kentucky. Ahead of Barrett's confirmation hearings, McConnell told reporters he had the votes to confirm the judge to the court. Continue reading the main story. I made three major deals with Joe Biden during the Obama era," McConnell said. Biden’s are mainly to members of his family, such as his sister Val, who managed all seven of his political campaigns before 2020. McConnell has fought to preserve the filibuster rule and seems unwilling to offer many concessions in return. He also stated publicly that he would bring a "presidentially-supported bill" to the Senate floor for a vote "at some point," but his main focus in the final two weeks before Election Day was on confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court justice. “Many people wonder why Republican legislators are so unrelenting on President Obama,” she wrote on Facebook in 2012. “Frederick Douglass gave us the answer many years ago. 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