Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called upon his Democratic colleagues to “meet the moment” of a “new start” that he said voters chose in November and President Trump laid out in his first major address to Congress Tuesday night.
“We have a historic opportunity before us – we can keep fighting the last election over and over and over or we can heed the president’s message of unity last night,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. “We can come together to accomplish big things, we can pull down the barriers of the past” to break through Washington partisanship.
McConnell cited a pre-election quote from Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., when it appeared as if Hillary Clinton would win the White House, reminding him that he had said lawmakers in Washington have a “moral obligation to avoid gridlock and get the country to work again.”
“I know he said that before the election, but we each have a duty to accept the results to bring the country together and move it forward – that is now the challenge before our Democratic friends.”
“I have asked them to meet the moment, and I hope they will because the American people are counting on us all,” he continued. “They are ready for a new start and we are determined to work hard on their behalf, as the president said himself last night.”
McConnell began his remarks Wednesday by hailing Trump’s Tuesday night speech as “unifying” and “refreshing” after such a difficult election.
He mentioned specifically that it was great to see “even my friend the Democratic leader occasionally applauding the president last night” even though he is under pressure from the “far left” to “burn the place down because it can’t accept the results of last year’s election.”
“It’s a reminder that we are all in this together,” he said.
