MSNBC’s Hunt: McConnell Wants GOP to ‘Not Look Scary’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” network political correspondent Kasie Hunt reported on soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s vision for the Republican Party, which is tied to presidential prospects for 2016.

“[A]s they come in, they are going to have to sort deal with one political issue after another, already straight out of the gate,” Hunt explained. “I would also point out that this is all taking place in the context of 2016. We know that it’s early, but even Mitch McConnell on the Senate side said in an interview recently with The Washington Post that this is about making his party not look scary for those voters who are going to be making a decision in 2016 about who to vote for for president.”

“And you also have to remember that McConnell’s going to be wrangling several very ambitious members of his own caucus – Sen. Ted Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Marco Rubio – all potentially vying to be president,” she continued. “And if you think about how Sen. Cruz has operated over the last couple of years, that potentially is going to put a lot of pressure or put a lot of pressure on some of the more establishment candidates in the field. I mean, if you have Cruz picking a big fight on Capitol Hill over immigration, that actually has implications for somebody like Jeb Bush.”

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