Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida (back R) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (front L) listen during a news conference after a policy luncheon with Senate Republicans at the US Capitol on September 7, 2022 in Washington, DC.
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Sen. Rick Scott plugs Ron DeSantis’ migrant trafficking project in a new fundraising pitch.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell hailed the migrant shuffling as “a good idea” on Tuesday.
Exploiting migrants for political gain is the rare thing McConnell and Scott agree on right now.
After months of bickering about election priorities, Republican Sen. Rick Scott and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appear to finally have found some common ground: dispersing confused migrants around the country to bedevil Democrats ahead of the midterms.
—Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) September 23, 2022
“Where do you want Republicans to send illegal immigrants next?” Scott, who is in charge of the Senate’s reelection arm this cycle, wrote in a recent fundraising email clearly piggybacking on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying four dozen disoriented Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard as a publicity stunt.
A baked-in poll, which may not collect any data but definitely accepts donations, asks MAGA fans to choose which Democratic enclave to disrupt next: former President Barack Obama’s house, the White House, San Francisco, or some other location. The Martha’s Vineyard incident has sparked mounting lawsuits against DeSantis as well as a wave of calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate potential criminal violations.
Scott is the second Senate GOP leader to climb aboard the DeSantis bandwagon this week. McConnell did so earlier, expressing his support for using migrants to make political statements on Tuesday.
“I personally thought it was a good idea,” McConnell told congressional reporters.
The surprise consensus comes amidst months of quarreling about what Republicans should stand for since embattled former President Donald Trump left office following the deadly siege at the US Capitol.
Scott recently lashed out at critics of Trump-backed midterm candidates — McConnell has publicly bemoaned the “candidate quality” of the current field — calling such talk “treasonous.”
“Many of the very people responsible for losing the Senate last cycle are now trying to stop us from winning the majority this time by trash-talking our Republican candidates,” Scott wrote in a scathing op-ed.
This spring McConnell threw cold water on Scott’s self-styled midterm strategy blueprint, emphatically stating “that will not be part of a Republican Senate majority agenda.”