Former President Trump said he will force Senate Republicans to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as their leader if he wins the presidency in 2024 and endorsed Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.) as a “likely candidate” for the job.
In an interview Monday night with Fox News Digital aboard his private plane after holding a rally in Dayton, Ohio, for Senate candidate J.D. Vance, Trump slammed McConnell as a “lousy leader.”
And he praised Scott, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and former two-term governor of Florida, as “highly underrated.”
Scott is predicting that Senate Republicans will pick up between two and five Senate seats in the midterm elections, which will boost his political stock in Washington and particularly among Republican colleagues.
He stirred speculation over the weekend when he declined to endorse McConnell for another term as Senate Republican leader, telling NBC host Chuck Todd that he’s not focused on anything beyond Election Day.
Trump provided more fuel to speculation by describing Scott as “a likely candidate” for majority or minority leader.
“I think Rick Scott is a likely candidate — he hates the guy,” Trump said, characterizing Scott’s feelings about McConnell. “He’s tough — he’s tough, and I think he would probably go for it.”
Trump predicted Scott would “have a lot of support.”
“People are very upset with Mitch McConnell — I’ll tell you who is upset with him — the public,” he said. McConnell stopped speaking to Trump after he lost the 2020 presidential election to President Biden but claimed, without evidence, that it had been stolen because of widespread fraud.
McConnell later denounced Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of election fraud as “wild falsehoods” and declared that the former president was “practically and morally responsible” for provoking the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Trump acknowledged that he doesn’t have enough support within the Senate GOP conference to oust McConnell from his leadership position after the 2022 midterms, in which Republicans have a good chance of recapturing the Senate majority.
But Trump predicted that if he runs for the White House and wins in 2024, McConnell’s career as Senate GOP leader will be over.
“I think we’ll probably have to live with him for two years,” Trump said. “And if I run and I win, I will say don’t send me any legislation if he’s the leader, and he’ll be out in two minutes.”
Asked Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he planned to run for GOP leader if Republicans win the Senate majority, Scott replied: “I’m not focused on anything except getting a majority Tuesday night.”
When Todd said that was a “nonanswer” and concluded that a challenge against McConnell is “a possibility,” Scott didn’t dispute it.
Senate Republicans are expected to elect their leadership team the week of Nov. 14 when they return to Washington the week after Election Day.
The role of Senate Republican leader is decided by an anonymous vote of the GOP conference.
McConnell has served as leader since January 2007, and Senate Republican aides and strategists say Scott has little to no chance of beating McConnell this month.
But a Senate Republican strategist acknowledged in an interview Monday that Scott “might do it” anyway.
McConnell told CNN in an interview last month that “I have the votes” to serve another two years as Senate Republican leader.
McConnell has raised more than $380 million for Senate Republican candidates this election cycle through two affiliated groups, the Senate Leadership Fund and One Nation, according to GOP sources.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, by comparison, has raised $235 million and spent $235 million so far this cycle, leaving it with $13.6 million in cash on hand, according to the most recent fundraising data compiled by OpenSecrets.org, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.
Republican senators told The Hill before lawmakers left Washington at the end of September that they expected McConnell to easily win reelection as leader and that no senator, including Scott, had made any overt efforts to challenge him.
McConnell’s leadership team — including Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.), Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), an adviser and former whip, and Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso (Wyo.) — hasn’t shown any inclination or desire to oust McConnell as leader.