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The Political Scene | The New Yorker
Mitch McConnell, the Most Dangerous Politician in America
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Mitch McConnell, the Most Dangerous Politician in America
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- [00:00]
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- [01:16]
Dorothy Wickenden
This is the Political Scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about Politics. It's Thursday, April 16th. Dorothy I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of the New Yorker. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for re election in November. Kentucky voters first sent him to the Senate in 1984, but he wasn't a well known figure until the Obama administration, when he made his name by opposing virtually all initiatives from the White House and his Democratic colleagues. During the Trump years, he has consistently refused to use the powers of the Senate to act as a check on the president. Instead, McConnell has become Trump's most powerful facilitator, propping up an administration he privately scorns and ensuring the president a succession of legislative and judicial victories. In the past month, as the coronavirus pandemic became a national emergency, McConnell accused congressional Democrats of performative outrage for demanding more money in the stimulus bill for virus relief. In McConnell's recent election campaign, he casts himself as the country's great conciliator.
- [02:30]
Mitch McConnell (voice clip)
Mitch McConnell led the passage of the biggest economic rescue package in history, urgent help for people who need it most? American families, small business jobs, extended unemployment benefits, and most of all, hospitals and our health care heroes. One leader brought our divided country together in a unanimous bipartisan vote. Mitch McConnell.
- [02:53]
Dorothy Wickenden
Jane Mayer, a New Yorker staff writer, joins me to discuss the man described as the most dangerous politician in America and the cost of his dogged support for Trump. Jane, welcome back.
- [03:06]
Jane Mayer
Thanks for having me.
- [03:08]
Dorothy Wickenden
I wanted to talk to you about your profile of McConnell in this week's New Yorker because it really elucidates not only his own remarkable career trajectory, but but also what has become of the Republican Party. So in your piece, Stuart Stevens, a longtime Republican political consultant, told you that McConnell and other party leaders deserve a large share of the blame for the COVID 19 crisis because they've helped Trump dismantle the country's safety net and have consistently ignored expert advice of all kinds. Stephen says that the party's accommodation of Trump is an utter disaster over the long term. And you argue in the piece that Trump couldn't have succeeded without McConnell. Could you tell us a little bit about how that relationship works?
- [04:00]
Jane Mayer
Yeah. And I think that one of the things that was interesting to me was how the symbiotic relationship between McConnell and Trump is really a picture of the Republican Party right now, which is described to me in the piece by two political scientists, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pearson, as something that they call plutocratic populism. And basically what you have is the Republican Party has come down to a kind of a Faustian bargain between the rich donors whose business interests are served by the Republican Party. They are the plutocrats whose agenda is not popular enough in this country at this point to win by themselves. They need to somehow broaden their base. And so the way they've done it and the way the Republican Party has done it is by creating a coalition with populists, the sort of Trump type. And many people have sort of looked at this in the past as these two factions as sort of enemies of each other. You've got sort of global capitalists and you've got nationalist, anti immigrant sort of white working class or middle class people. But in fact, they've knit their interests together because neither of them has enough votes to win on their own. So that's what you see with McConnell and Trump. McConnell, really, more than almost any politician I can think of in America, has represented the interests of big business and the tremendous wealth in America. The big donors in the Republican Party. And Trump, at least rhetorically, has claimed to be representing the interests of sort of people who are down and out and forgotten. And they need each other, basically.
- [05:53]
Dorothy Wickenden
So there were indications early on that McConnell might take a different route to power. And that in 1973, during Watergate, he wrote an op ed about the corrupting influence of money in politics, which, as you note, is hardly the position he takes now.
- [06:10]
Jane Mayer
I mean, it's an out of body experience. To read the op ed. You would think it was written by common cause or something like that. I mean, it's all about the corrupting influence of big money and calls it a canc in American politics. I mean, to me, what's interesting about McConnell that back then and now, when you watch his dance with Trump, is he's very smart man. And I think, at least from my reporting, an awful lot of people who know him seem to be saying he knows better. He knows that politics is corrupted by huge money, but yet he spent his entire career enabling it. He knows that Trump is not fit to handle a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, yet he has spent the last nearly four years enabling Trump. Why is he doing this? It seems to be, from what everybody told me, finally, at the end of the day, his own just wanting power.
- [07:10]
Dorothy Wickenden
I was also struck by this scene that you describe in a classroom. It was a class he was teaching in the 1970s at the university of Louisville. And one day he wrote on the blackboard the three necessary ele for success in politics. Money, money, money.
- [07:26]
Jane Mayer
Right. So early on, I mean, he wrote this piece about the cancer that money is at a time when he was thinking of running for office and Nixon was in disgrace. So basically what he was trying to do was separate his image from Nixon's and say, I'm clean, he's dirty. But then as soon as he really gets going in politics, he's recognized that money, money, money, as he puts on that blackboard, is what it takes to win. And interestingly, what some of the people I' who talked about McConnell say is he's absolutely right in his case that he needs the money edge to win. Because he is not charismatic, he's not idealistic, he's not painting a vision of the better world. He just needs to slay his opponent with smear campaigns that cost a lot of money. And that's what he's pretty much done all these years.
- [08:17]
Dorothy Wickenden
So. And he's been incredibly good at aligning himself with the right wing money machine, very carefully cultivating connections to the Koch brothers, Blackstone, the DeVos family, Roger Ailes. It goes on and on. You've written about these big donors for years. What makes supporting McConnell so appealing to them?
- [08:37]
Jane Mayer
Well, I mean, he is. He delivers for them exactly what they want. One of the people, I didn't put this quote in the story, but one of the people I interviewed who's known McConnell a long time said, you know, it's really not that hard to get ahead the way he has. All he had to do was say to the richest people, country, I'll do what you want. You know, he's really enabled the capture of Congress by big money and by corporate interests and aligned the Republican Party with those interests.
- [09:07]
Dorothy Wickenden
So that includes blocking campaign finance reform, climate change legislation, gun control, and efforts to curb economic inequality or improve healthcare.
- [09:18]
Jane Mayer
Right. And he takes money from all those industries, and he takes the money and then kills the legislation that might move the ball forward. I mean, there's a wonderful quote. I'm indebted to Robert Caro, who I interviewed for this story, who is, of course, just the. Nobody's a better biographer than he is of Lyndon Johnson. And I asked him, well, because both McConnell and Johnson have been described as masters of the Senate. So I was asking him, you know, do you see McConnell as being like Johnson? And he said, well, yes, to a certain point. But Lyndon Johnson at his best used the Senate rules to promot social justice. And as he put it, Mitch McConnell has used those rules to block it.
- [10:05]
Dorothy Wickenden
And there's no better example of that than how McConnell blocked Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court.
- [10:13]
Jane Mayer
And what's more is after having blocked Merrick Garland on the argument that the opening in the Supreme Court when Scalia died was during an election year, even though it was almost a full year out after making that argument while Obama was president, he is now saying that if there is an opening on the court, Mitch McConnell is now telling donors that he will fill that seat right up to the bitter end. And he's literally telling donors that this could be our October surprise.
- [10:47]
Dorothy Wickenden
Norman Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute described McConnell as, you know, so dangerous in destroying the fundamentals of our democracy. And he told you there isn't anybody remotely close.
- [11:00]
Jane Mayer
What he's saying is that he has been a handmaiden to Trump, who's empowered Trump, and he has, at the same time, he has completely weakened the Senate and not played the role that the Senate in the Constitution was designed to play, which is a check on the executive branch. And by doing that, that he has really broken the or deeply damaged our democracy.
- [11:27]
Katie Drummond, Michael Colory, and Lauren Good
I'm Katie Drummond. I'm Wired's global editorial director. I'm Michael Colory, Wired's Director of Consumer, Tech and Culture. And I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior correspondent at Wired. And our show, Uncanny Valley is about the people, power and influence of Silicon Valley. And right now, Silicon Valley and Washington have never been more intertwined. So each, each week, we get together to talk about a big story, often at the intersection of tech and politics. Right. So whether we're talking about Trump, Coin Doge, or Elon Musk, we will always explain how these Silicon Valley forces are affecting Washington and how they affect you. Make sure you're following Uncanny Valley in your podcast app of choice so you don't miss an episode.
- [12:13]
Dorothy Wickenden
I also found his family life fascinating, learning that his first wife, Cheryl Redman, worked with Gloria Steinem on a feminist oral history project and that his youngest daughter, Porter, is the campaign director for Take on Wall street, which works against the predatory economic powers, they put it, of banks and billionaires.
- [12:36]
Jane Mayer
Yes. And he has three daughters, and all three of them seem to be not supporters of McConnell's politics. In fact, Porter McConnell also tweeted out support for Christine Blasey Ford and against Brett Kavanaugh during the Kavanaugh nomination fight, where her father was leading the fight on behalf of Kavanaugh. So you can see there's a big rift within that family, and it's not unlike a rift that's developed among other backers, early backers of McConnell, some of the people who've respected him, even admired him in the past, including a biographer of his named John David Dyke. He has broken with McConnell, too, for having no principles but his own, saving his own skin. There's a level of disgust that McConnell has gone along with Trump. Again, the sense among many who know him that he knows better, and he's doing it simply for crass political reasons, to protect his reelection in Kentucky, where Trump is more popular than he is.
- [13:43]
Dorothy Wickenden
Some of the most startling reporting in your piece, to me, is about the role that McConnell played during the 2016 presidential campaign, when intelligence began to emerge about Russian interference. What happened there?
- [13:56]
Jane Mayer
Well, this was astounding to me, too, which was in August of 2016. The CIA director, John Brannan, pretty early on in August, came to the conclusion that the Russians were trying to hijack or interrupt the U.S. presidential election. And he was trying to reach Mitch McConnell to tell him about this. And for weeks and weeks, he was unable to get a hold of the Senate majority leader, who was the Senate was in recess. And Mitch McConnell just simply did not make him until after Labor Day. So finally what happens is after Labor Day, everybody's back from Congress and Obama holds an urgent, tiny meeting of just the top four congressional leaders, no staff in his Oval Office saying, I need the four of you to put out a letter. I want it to be bipartisan so people understand this isn't a partisan political gambit. This is a real threat. And we need to notify all of the state and local election officials in this country that the Russians are trying to interfere in our election. And what happens after that? Three of the four of the congressional leaders said fine, but one of them, Mitch McConnell, according to the account I got from Denis McDonough, the chief of staff at the time, Mitch McConnell said nothing. There was a back and forth and back and forth and back and forth over the wording of that letter. And each time the other three tried to make some kinds of changes. Version that Mitch McConnell had written, he refused any edits and instead he stuck to a template that was so hard for anyone to understand and made no reference to any kind of foreign interference. That's the letter that finally went out. And as a result, many people in the country, almost everybody except the few people in the intelligence community, had no idea that the Russians were trying to target all 50 states elections. And they never knew that until months and months after the election.
- [16:12]
Dorothy Wickenden
So McConnell in effect helped get Trump elected.
- [16:15]
Jane Mayer
That's what a lot of people think. And I guess that's why he's gotten the nickname Moscow Mitch, which he absolutely hates. It stuck to him in Kentucky where a lot of people have been wearing these hats that say nyet Mitch.
- [16:31]
Dorothy Wickenden
So this gets back to what you were saying earlier about how unpopular McConnell is in Kentucky. And I wonder whether a good bit of that also has to the way he's handled the coal industry and that unbelievable Massey slurry pond disaster that you discuss at some length.
- [16:50]
Jane Mayer
He is seen in the state as the representing the big interests in the state. And so that would be in days past anyway, the coal barons. He's not a warm person, he's not a back slapper. He's not someone who people really personally like that much. I think that, you know, his strength in the eyes of Kentucky voters is that because he's in the leadership, he's in a position of power to help them. There's frustration that he hasn't done more for the state and given the power that he's got. And so you can see in places like Appalachia that where the, for instance, the thing you're talking about there was A huge environmental disaster. And. And it ruined the water system in Martin county and some other areas in the Appalachian part of Kentucky. And they still. That was 20 years ago. They still. There are parts of Kentucky where people don't have reliable running and drinking water. And so some people in those areas do blame McConnell. But you know, what was interesting was many other people I interviewed there, they still love Trump. And to the extent that they see that McConnell backs up Trump, they'll back him.
- [18:10]
Dorothy Wickenden
But he is being challenged in the election by Amy McGrath, who's a former Marine fighter pilot and a moderate Democrat, and she has raised even more money than he has.
- [18:21]
Jane Mayer
Isn't that incredible? I mean, listen, this race in Kentucky is going to be one of the highest spending races anybody's ever seen. It's amazing. Mitch McConnell has raised more money by this point than he ever has before. It's like over $25 million. And that his campaign sort of proudly put out this statement recently saying so. And within 24 hours, Amy McCrath's campaign put out a statement saying she had topped him.
- [18:50]
Dorothy Wickenden
Where's her money coming from?
- [18:52]
Jane Mayer
Her money is coming from all over the country. I think there's such a feeling that Mitch McConnell is a malignant influence in American politics, at least in the eyes of Democrats. I don't know how she will do. I mean, this piece is really. He is. And I did interview her for it, and, you know, she strikes me as kind of an earnest person who seems very gung ho. I said to her, you know, Mitch McConnell is famous for being. For smearing his opponents. I mean, his motto is, when they throw a pebble, we respond with a boulder. So I said to her, you know, wow, why did you want to take this on? You know, it doesn't sound like a pleasant experience. And she said, I'm a Marine. I don't run from a fight. So it'll be interesting to watch this thing. It really will be.
- [19:46]
Dorothy Wickenden
This week, Obama endorsed Joe Biden for president. How do you think Obama's campaigning for his former vice president will affect McConnell's political strategy? He loathes Obama as much as Trump does.
- [20:00]
Jane Mayer
Well, in the last Senate campaign that McConnell ran in 2014, he basically turned his opponent, who was Alison Lundergan Grimes, into Obama. Obama was really unpopular in Kentucky, and so he tied his opponent to Obama. I don't know if he'll be able to do that with Biden. He may try. I think Biden, of all the candidates, may have a better chance in Kentucky than almost any of the other Democratic possibilities. I think that's her vote. There's a kind of a non elite, non snobby, kind of pro working class feel to Biden that is comfortable to a lot of Kentucky voters. I'd be curious to see whether he can be smeared by his association with Obama. Certainly I wouldn't put it past Mitch McConnell to try.
- [20:59]
Dorothy Wickenden
Thanks so much Jane.
- [21:01]
Jane Mayer
Thanks for having me on.
- [21:07]
Dorothy Wickenden
Jane Mayer is the New Yorker's chief Washington correspondent and the author of Dark the Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right. This has been the political scene. You can subscribe to this and other New Yorker podcasts by searching for the New Yorker in your podcast app and find more political analysis and commentary on new yorker.com feel free to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Our theme music is by Russell Gillespie. This program was produced by Alex Barron and Kylie Warner. For newyorker.com I'm Dorothy Wickenden. America is changing and so is the world.
- [21:51]
Jane Mayer
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [21:59]
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I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [22:02]
Jane Mayer
Tristan Redman in London, and this is the Global Story.
- [22:06]
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Every weekday we'll bring you a story.
- [22:07]
Jane Mayer
From this intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts from. PRX.