Sen. John Thune (R-SD), who was elected as the Republican Senate leader, is “not Mitch McConnell,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
“I hope so,” Johnson said when asked if Thune can get the job done, making a distinction between the new leader and old.
“Again, John Thune is not Mitch McConnell. I think what was interesting about our candidate forum the Monday night before the vote is it was pretty much repudiation of Mitch McConnell’s one man dictatorship,” the senator revealed. “It truly was. I mean, there was not much of a difference in terms of how Cornyn, Thune, or Rick Scott spoke, in terms of how they wanted to be a leader,” he said, describing all three of them as “far more collaborative, engaging the conference in developing a strategy, us knowing what the strategy was, no surprises, supporting President Trump, his nominees, [and] his agenda.”
“So that’s what they all said. The conference chose John Thune. I like John. He’s a smart guy. He’s an articulate guy. I’ll do everything I can to help him succeed because he’s committed to helping President Trump succeed. So we move forward,” he said, noting he was a “big supporter” of Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). But “not because I dislike John Thune and John Cornyn,” he said.
“Rick Scott’s a pretty extraordinary individual with the kind of skill set in the private sector that I thought would have been valuable for our conference, but majority of our conference thought otherwise. So again, I will do everything I can to help John be successful,” he added.
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Speaking of McConnell at the end of the interview, Johnson pointed out that the 82 year old “never sought leverage in all these funding battles” because he actually liked the spending.
“Quite honestly,” he said, “he didn’t really mind … spending” and pointed out “the now $36 trillion in debt under his watch.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.