Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: McConnell on getting Trump's nominations through, midterms

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MACCALLUM: We will. Ed, thank you very much. So, joining me now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Leader McConnell, thank you very much.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-K.Y., SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Glad to be with you, Martha.

MACCALLUM: It's good to have with us this evening. I want to start with Mike Pompeo. Do you believe that he will get a vote tomorrow and that he has the votes to pass in the Senate?

MCCONNELL: He does, indeed. We'll be confirming him tomorrow, and there are now five Democrats who come on board -- there should've been a lot more. This nomination, really, shouldn't have been so contentious, but nevertheless, we have the votes and he'll be confirmed tomorrow and be able to get started representing our country abroad.

MACCALLUM: And Rick Grenell, the Ambassador to Germany, is also going to be put through, do you believe he will pass?

MCCONNELL: I certainly hope so -- well, we believe. We'll be voting on him tomorrow as well and we look forward to confirming him because Chancellor Merkel is making a U.S. visit shortly, and we'd like to have the ambassador to Germany in placed before then.

MACCALLUM: Well, how do you respond, Leader McConnell, to the criticism that there are still so many nominations that need to get through the Senate? When I sent out a tweet earlier today that was going to be speaking with you, a number of people said: please ask Senator McConnell why he is not scheduling more time to push through these nominees? He said he would work weekends, he would make people stay weekends, and then that would break the logjam with Democrats and that this 30-hour rule, would probably go out the window pretty quickly.

MCCONNELL: Well, a number of times when we've threatened to that, they have collapsed. We've actually gotten a lot of nominations this year, but the president has a very legitimate complaint. I've had to file cloture -- that's the device by which you stop debate -- 88 times in the Trump administration, that's more than the last six presidents in the first two years together. So, the Democrats do have an opportunity to slow the process. We're working hard to try to truncate that. For example, we're having the two votes tomorrow because they've decided not to use all of the time that they could have used, and we're continuing to put the pressure on. It's a legitimate complaint.

MACCALLUM: You know, so, in terms of the August recess and the circuit court judges that are still out there, because there are some who are concerned -- they're concerned about whether or not the Republicans can hold the House, and now there's some increasing concerns, potentially, about the Senate, and I want to ask you about that in a moment. But they think that you really need to put the pressure on these circuit court judge, and to hold that August recess over the senators' head to get that done. Will you commit to doing that?

MCCONNELL: Well, look, the circuit judges have been my top priority. We confirmed 12 last year which is a record for the first term of any president going back to 1891.

MACCALLUM: How many are still outstanding right now?

MCCONNELL: Well, there's five more there on the calendar which means they're out on the floor. We'll be taking those up shortly. I've processed the circuit judges as rapidly as they've come out of committee. It's been my top priority. So, we're not behind on circuit judges, we're way ahead. The Democrats are complaining because we have confirmed -- well, they're complaining because we've confirmed so many circuit judges.

MACCALLUM: I got you. But you wouldn't hesitate to use -- to make people work over the weekend, or potentially, over the August recess if you don't get the progress that you see? Is that true?

MCCONNELL: Yes, we're going to confirm these judges; I don't care what tactics they employ. And we're going to confirm the other nominees, the president has. There've been completely unreasonable delays. And we're going to ground through it, we're going to get them all.

MACCALLUM: Do you support Ronny Jackson for -- at the V.A.?

MCCONNELL: That's the decisions the president has to make. I mean, he has to decide, obviously, whether to go forward with this nomination. The Chairman of the Veterans' Committee, Senator Isakson, postponed the hearing. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion about whether this nomination will go forward. I'm going to wait and see what the president wants to do.

MACCALLUM: OK. I want to talk you about the Senate races because there's now increasing concern from Steve Law, who you know well, at American Crossroads; he saying that he believes that we do have a more defensive train to hold. Then, when the cycle started, and targeted Democratic incumbents have been over performing in terms of their early fundraising activity. There are those who would like to see a lot more urgency on the part of Republicans on Capitol Hill when it comes to these midterms. What do you say about that?

MCCONNELL: There's plenty of urgency, I can tell you that. I mean, the left is obviously fired up. They have been doing great on fundraising. The left turnout in place like the Virginia governor's race, was stunning. So, there's no question, I would say to all of our Republican supporters across the country. We need to be turning out in big numbers this fall because the Democrats are fired up, they want to take the Congress back. We think we have an excellent chance to hold it, but it does require a lot of enthusiasm. The Democrats are fired up, but no question about it, but so are we. And we're going to be really fired up come November.

MACCALLUM: As you may have heard, in the promo earlier, we're going to be in West Virginia at the Senate Primary debate on Tuesday night. I want to play this for you, this is what one of the candidates, Don Blankenship said about your wife, Elaine Chao.

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MACCALLUM: What do you have to say about that, sir?

MCCONNELL: Well, my father-in-law is an American who lives in New York, works in New York. And I don't have any comment about ridiculous observations like that. You and Bret are going to be doing the debate, we'll look forward to seeing who the Republicans of West Virginia choose to nominate. I hope it's somebody who can actually win the general election.

MACCALLUM: Who do you support there?

MCCONNELL: I'm not in that race. But I hope they nominate somebody who can actually win the general election.

MACCALLUM: All right. One last question, there's been a suggestion that you are reluctant to push through a second round of tax cuts to put the individual cuts to make them permanent. Is that something that you're hesitating to do?

MCCONNELL: No, I'm all for making all the tax cuts permanent. Unfortunately, a lot of red states Democrats could vote for that and we still wouldn't get the outcome we want. But no, I'm very much in favor of making all of that.

MACCALLUM: But you're not against people come -- bipartisan vote in favor of tax cuts?

MCCONNELL: Yes, if we can win, we get 60 votes and actually do it? I'm all for it.

MACCALLUM: All right. Senator McConnell, thank you so much, good to see you as always, sir.

MCCONNELL: Thank you.

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