Vice President J.D. Vance on Tuesday slammed the recent voting pattern of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying it shows a unique level of "pettiness" to go against President Donald Trump again.
Earlier in the day, the Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby by a vote of 54-45 to be undersecretary of defense for policy, with McConnell the lone Republican to join the Democratic opposition. Democrats Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed of Rhode Island went against the majority of their party to support Colby.
"Mitch's vote today—like so much of the last few years of his career—is one of the great acts of political pettiness I've ever seen," Vance posted on X.
McConnell has drawn the ire of the new Trump administration from Day 1, making a point of voting against the president's Cabinet appointees, starting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
McConnell reportedly told colleagues that he felt "liberated" after stepping down from his position as Senate Republican leader, giving him new freedom to be an independent voice. Vance was ultimately needed to cast the tiebreaking vote to confirm Hegseth. McConnell also voted against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
McConnell justified Tuesday's vote by suggesting Colby is not the unique national security thinker his supporters have made him out to be.
"The prioritization that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy. Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move," the senator said in a statement.
The antipathy between McConnell and the president goes back to the first Trump administration. Although McConnell can be credited with his Senate maneuvers to block Merrick Garland, then-President Barack Obama's choice for Supreme Court justice, he has been a consistent thorn in the side of Trump ever since.
In a speech on the Senate floor during the 2021 impeachment hearing, McConnell called Trump's actions prior to the Jan. 6 protest at the U.S. Capitol a "disgraceful dereliction of duty." Trump responded with a slight of his own, describing McConnell has a "dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack."
On Monday, McConnell again went against Trump by joining other GOP senators to try to limit the president's ability to impose tariffs without congressional approval. The bill would make any tariffs created solely by the president invalid after 60 days if not approved by Congress.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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