According to the Northern Kentucky Tribune, McConnell, appearing on Wednesday at a local branch of a rotary club back in his home state of Kentucky, told his constituents, “A Congress goes on for two years and part of the reason I think that the story line is that we haven’t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early time lines about things need to be done by a certain point.” He also claimed that Trump had “excessive expectations,” borrowing from Ivanka’s strategy of desperately hoping that people lower any expectations they have of him.
In response to McConnell’s remarks, Trump tweeted on Wednesday afternoon and, after having a night to cool off and refine his message, on Thursday morning:
Senator Mitch McConnell said I had "excessive expectations," but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017
Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2017
Trump was clearly no help to Republicans’ health care repeal efforts. He couldn’t sell it to the public and he couldn’t sell it to skeptical lawmakers. But McConnell’s hands aren’t clean either—he tried to push through a horrible repeal bill on such short notice that John McCain had to return to Washington a mere week after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, whereupon he promptly hogged the spotlight and voted to kill the bill. Trump might be be an evil buffoon, but in the Republican Party it’s evil buffoons all the way down.