No. 2 Senate Republican backs McConnell in Trump fight

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) became the latest Republican to throw his support behind Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) following a string of attacks from President Trump.

“Passing POTUS’s legislative agenda requires a team effort. No one is more qualified than Mitch McConnell to lead Senate in that effort,” Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Twitter on Friday.

Pressed by a Texas journalist if congressional Republicans were starting to break from Trump, Cornyn said his remarks were a “call for unity.”

“As Benjamin Frankliin said: we can hang together or hang separately,” he tweeted.

Passing POTUS’s legislative agenda requires a team effort . No one is more qualified than Mitch McConnell to lead Senate in that effort.

— JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) August 11, 2017

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Cornyn’s comments come as other GOP senators publicly offered their support for McConnell on Thursday after the president argued the Senate leader is failing to pass the GOP legislative agenda. 

Other senators also backed McConnell on Friday. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told the Lexington Herald-Leader that he still supports McConnell.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) tweeted her support, calling McConnell “uniquely qualified” to lead Senate Republicans, adding that she looked “forward to continuing to work with him to advance policies that benefit” her state.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) added that “from health care to tax reform to infrastructure, tough issues to tackle this fall,” there were “none better than [McConnell] to get a good outcome.”

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) called McConnell “a great champion for farmers [and] ranchers” and said they would work “side-by-side” on the upcoming farm bill. Meanwhile, Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) added Republicans need McConnell’s “leadership and a unified Republican Party to continue delivering results to all.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) tweeted that McConnell “enjoys broad support in our Caucus,”  while Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said without McConnell’s leadership, “Republicans don’t have Neil Gorsuch on Supreme Court.”

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who heads up the Senate GOP campaign arm, said McConnell has “the confidence of the conference to lead. I have no doubt that, working together, we’ll show a better future for all.”

The president appeared to threaten McConnell on Thursday, suggesting the Senate majority leader might want to consider stepping down if he can’t pass the GOP legislative agenda including ObamaCare repeal, tax reform and infrastructure.

Trump’s comments came after three tweets during the past two days firing back at McConnell for his comments at a Rotary Club in Kentucky that the president had “excessive expectations” about moving the GOP agenda.

“Our new president has of course not been in this line of work before and I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell said earlier this week.

Republicans failed to pass a “skinny” ObamaCare repeal proposal in a 49-51 vote late last month.

Despite the blow McConnell still has strong support within the Senate Republican Conference.

Several GOP senators publicly voiced frustrations about the closed-door process on healthcare, but they stopped well short of questioning McConnell’s status as majority leader.

This story was updated at 12:40 p.m.