Senate Republicans face a real possibility of being swept out of power on Nov. 3, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he remains optimistic.
“I’m optimistic we can hang on,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told Hugh Hewitt on his radio show.
Republicans are fighting to hold on to nine endangered seats rated as toss-up or worse, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Democrats need to pick up four to five of those seats to win back the majority and push McConnell and Republicans out of power for at least the next two years.
“We’ve got a whole of tough, close, I describe them as like a knife fight in an alley, in about six or eight different places,” McConnell said. “But we’ve got great candidates, and I’m optimistic we can hold on. But it’s a 50-50 proposition.”
McConnell warned that a Democratic majority would vote to eliminate the filibuster, which would pave the way for the party to expand the Supreme Court and fill it with party-approved justices. Democrats, McConnell added, would attempt to create states out of two Democratic enclaves, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., which would shift the balance of the Senate. McConnell said a Democratic Senate would also raise taxes and increase regulations, slowing economic growth.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat poised to become majority leader if the party wins on Election Day, won’t rule out eliminating the filibuster or packing the Supreme Court.
“If Chuck Schumer is setting the agenda in the United States Senate, you can predict the worst,” McConnell said. “We will go hard left. The country will not look the same, after two years of that, as it does today.”
McConnell is also on the ballot. He faces Democratic challenger Amy McGrath and is leading by about 10 points, according to recent polls.
McConnell said outside liberal groups have poured about $100 million into the Kentucky Senate race in a bid to defeat him.
“In a state with 4.3 million people, it’s been an interesting experience to see yourself trashed every day for well over a year,” McConnell said. “But I’m a big boy. I can defend myself. And I fully intend to next Tuesday.”
McConnell said that if Republicans hold onto the majority, confirming judges would remain a priority. McConnell added he would move a coronavirus aid package but not a proposal as large and expensive as the one House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seeking, which is in the range of $3 trillion.
“We probably need to do another package, certainly more modest than the $3 trillion Nancy Pelosi package,” McConnell said. “I think that’ll be something we’ll need to do right at the beginning of the year. We could target it particularly at small businesses that are struggling and hospitals that are now dealing with the second wave of the coronavirus and, of course, the challenges for education, both K-12 and college.”
If the Senate GOP loses, McConnell said he’ll move to confirm vacant seats on the federal circuit courts before the 116th Congress concludes in December.
“We’re going to run through the tape,” McConnell said. “We go through the end of the year and so does the president. We’re going to fill the 7th Circuit. And I’m hoping we have time to fill the 1st Circuit as well. And we are, by the way, confirming a district judge as soon as we get back after the election, and we’re going to clean the plate, clean all the district judges off as well.”
