Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is begging his colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill to stop barreling toward a government shutdown at the end of the month, which he fears could tank Republicans’ chances in the election, according to The Daily Beast.
“One thing you cannot have is a government shutdown. It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame,” McConnell told reporters. “One of my favorite old sayings is there’s no education in the second kick of a mule. We’ve been here before.”
McConnell appeared to be referencing previous shutdown fights that have ended with public backlash, such as the Sen. Ted Cruz-led 2013 shutdown fight to try to defund the Affordable Care Act.
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McConnell added, “I’m for whatever avoids a government shutdown, and that’ll ultimately end up, obviously, being a discussion between the Democratic leader and the Speaker of the House.”
Republicans in the House have been flailing for days over how to get government funding through. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has tried to pair a temporary funding bill with the SAVE Act, a GOP priority that would gut the National Voter Registration Act by requiring citizenship verification to register to vote.
Johnson doesn’t appear to have the votes, however, largely because the far-right flank of the caucus does not feel the voter restrictions are enough of a selling point for agreeing to a short-term funding bill, which many oppose on principle.
Complicating things further, former President Donald Trump has demanded that the House pass the bill as is, and let the government shut down if they can’t get it through.
