McConnell: SCOTUS won’t humble ‘imperial President Obama’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted Thursday’s Supreme Court decision against the White House’s recess appointments would not humble a leader he called “the imperial President Obama.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” McConnell told radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday night. “I think the only thing that’ll humble Barack Obama is the American people giving us a Republican Senate so we can, for the first time, actually challenge him.”

{mosads}The Supreme Court ruled that Obama violated the Constitution when he made a series of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was technically in session. 

The court left in place the president’s ability to make recess appointments when the Senate is away but ruled that he cannot do so when the chamber is in “pro forma” sessions, a tactic Republicans have used to prevent those appointments. 

“And he, the imperial President Obama, decided he knew more than we did, and just — he tried to establish that he got to decide when we were in session,” McConnell said. 

The minority leader helped intervene in the case to argue the president overstepped his bounds, along with 44 other members of the Senate. 

McConnell sent out a fundraising email about the ruling Thursday night. He is in a tough reelection fight against Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes and made his case during the interview that he should be the next majority leader. 

“So I think the best way to push back against this president is for the American people to change the Senate, to make me the offensive coordinator instead of the defensive coordinator,” he said.