McConnell on Fox News Channel’s ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined Bret Baier on Fox News Channel’s ‘Special Report with Bret Baier’ tonight. See below for highlights or click here to watch the full interview.
On Democrats’ Liberal Wish-List Spending:
“First of all, the minimum wage doesn’t belong in there. The congressional budget office says it will cost 1.4 million jobs we would lose. Second, $350 billion for bailouts to poorly run states is clearly not necessary. With regard to the school funding that they added-- by the way the school funding that we have already provided has not yet spent out in the bill we passed a couple months ago-- but of the school funding that they add only 5% of it is used this year, the rest of it spent out in future years.
“I thought this was supposed to be a package about COVID relief? This is wildly more expensive, Bret, than the country needs at this particular time because the vaccines are rolling out, shots are getting into arms, the economy is getting better and better. I think, my ten moderate republicans went down to see the president, suggested that they could justify about $500 or $600 billion. This is $2T, to put that in context, that's what we spent at the height of the pandemic last April. Wildly too expensive and full of democratic asks they want to take advantage of under the name of COVID relief.”
On the Biden Administration’s Hard Left Turn:
“[OMB Director Nominee Neera Tanden] is excessively partisan. She’s tweeted frequently, we are accustomed to that these days, but she took shots at everybody. She’s taken offensive shots at almost all my members. You think of people in charge of OMB as being honest brokers that you can talk to. She has been so partisan that she's generated opposition from even my most moderate members. For example like Senator Collins, Senator Romney, who are always looking for opportunities to be cooperative with the administration.
“This is just another example of the fact that the President has chosen a very progressive beginning. His chief of staff, on MSNBC yesterday, said with regard to the COVID package, the most progressive legislation in a generation. The President has decided not to be a centrist and therefore he should not expect much Republican support for these kinds of initiatives.”
On a Bipartisan January 6th Commission:
“For or against investigating? Some of our committees have been having hearings on that very subject this week. I am open to a 9/11-type commission, but it's got to be even, like the 9/11 Commission was. If we’re going to do an outside commission review of the events of January 6th, it needs to be structured similar to the 9/11 Commission. You might have noticed that the chairs of the 9/11 Commission have already come out against Nancy Pelosi’s approach to this because it's not balanced. That one was balanced. Both Lee Hamilton and Tom Kane, who chaired that outside commission after 9/11, refused to go on Sunday shows except together. It was a totally bipartisan effort. And that's what is needed in order to have credibility attached to the final report. That kind of commission I am open to; nothing close to what the Speaker is proposing am I open to.”
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