Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Senator Mitch McConnell: Mob was Not Able to Intimidate the Senate
Interview
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INGRAHAM: That was Senator Susan Collins delivering a crushing blow to Democrats hoping for a last-minute defection. During her nearly one hour long speech earlier today, she echoed many of the sentiments offered on the Senate floor day after day by our next guest. We're happy to be joined exclusively tonight by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Senator McConnell, when did you know you had the votes?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: When the roll was called.
INGRAHAM: No, really?
MCCONNELL: Yes. They were all very guarded about making an announcement. So this is one of those rare situations when you go into a vote, not really knowing for sure that you had them.
INGRAHAM: Because you usually call cloture, you don't usually call cloture unless you know you have the ultimate votes, correct.
MCCONNELL: We had to move on this. And this was not going to get any better if we didn't vote. I decided a week ago we were going to vote on Friday because we watched what was happening. Tthey were trying to destroy this good man with all these rumors and all the rest of the stuff so we need to have a vote in order to bring to it a conclusion.
INGRAHAM: Why didn't Senator Murkowski ultimately go along? We got Flake and you got Collins with that long speech today. I mean she will impress a lot of people with her passion and her dedication, the advise and consent. What happened to Murkowski?
MCCONNELL: Well, you know, I'd rather celebrate the victory. And I think there's plenty of credit to go around. President Trump for making great choices. Chairman Grassley for doing a heck of a good job in committee dealing with all of these outbursts, my members dealing with -- I mean we've been under assault, Laura. Our homes have been -- they've come to our homes.
INGRAHAM: Yours was today, this morning.
MCCONNELL: Yes, but not just me, everybody. I mean, they've been after all of us. We've sort of been under assault. And everybody decided to stand up to the mob. You know, they're not being intimidated by these people. I just couldn't be prouder of my members for refusing to roll over under all of this intense pressure, all of the lies. This is a great day for America.
INGRAHAM: The senate is under siege, protesters don't seem to be letting up, even late in the afternoon into the evening tonight. Is this the new normal? And I want to play something. This is Senator Manchin. This was after the Collins speech today and after he said he would vote for Brett Kavanaugh. Let's watch.
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INGRAHAM: A lot of my radio callers today said is this the way it's going to be? Is there going to be any changes to building access? You don't want to become cocoon but any changes to how you let people into the building?
MCCONNELL: Well, I think security will take care of that. Look, I think the main point is the mob was not able to intimidate the Senate. We stood up to the mob, we did the right thing for a good man, fill a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. There were a lot to celebrate today. I couldn't be prouder of all of my members. Senator Collins, outstanding. You had part of her speech in the entry.
INGRAHAM: But the Democrats now have raised just during her speech, they raised almost $2 million on a GoFundMe page for an undetermined candidate and Susan Collins is apparently seriously entertaining -- Susan Rice, excuse me -- entertaining a challenge against Senator Collins in 2020. Your thoughts.
MCCONNELL: Senator Collins will be well-funded, I can assure you. Look, there's a lot of enthusiasm on our side, too. You may or may not have noticed the rising enthusiasm among Republican voters. I think our people are going to be just as fired-up as theirs a month from now and everybody is going to remember what they did to Brett Kavanaugh.
INGRAHAM: Is this the shot in the arm that the Republicans needed?
MCCONNELL: Absolutely. Absolutely. It is a wakeup call to why it's important to hold the Senate. You know, the Senate is in the personnel business. I love the House but the Senate is in the personnel business. You want to get judges confirmed, cabinet members confirmed, boards and commissions confirmed, we have to control the Senate so the president's nominations can actually be confirmed and take the jobs.
INGRAHAM: Do you intend to use this issue on the campaign trail for the last four weeks and what are you going to say about it?
MCCONNELL: Absolutely. I'm going to remind everybody of the importance of the Senate, two Supreme Court appointments, 26 circuit judges, a record for the first two years. These are lifetime appointments with conservative men and women who believe that the job of a judge is to interpret the law as it's written.
INGRAHAM: Well, what about repercussions for what happened during this process? I was here for Judge Bourque. I was a young speech writer in the Reagan administration. I was here for Justice Thomas obviously, but I think this actually rivaled both of those.
MCCONNELL: I do, too.
INGRAHAM: It was brutal. And Lindsay Graham was on with us last night and he talked about the need for repercussions against the wrong doers in this case. Let's watch.
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INGRAHAM: Will they pay a price?
MCCONNELL: I think it will be investigated. But, you know, it didn't work. I think the most important thing to note here is these tactics did not work.
INGRAHAM: You want to go through this again. You want to pay -- people need to pay --
MCCONNELL: What I want these people to know, Laura, is we are prepared to go through it again. They are not going to intimidate us. They're not going to tell us how to vote. And they've actually, you know, they actually helped us win this vote. Their tactics actually helped us unify our people and win this vote. They're going to help us win a month from now on November 6, too.
INGRAHAM: Do you think you'll pick up senate seats?
MCCONNELL: I hope so. This underscores how important it is. We have a close margin. Very close margin. I'd like to have a few extra Republican senators.
INGRAHAM: Let's talk about the media's role in all of this, amplifying charges. We had -- another point I want to play from Susan Collins when she talked about the rape rooms and these words that were being thrown around against this esteemed judge. Let's watch.
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INGRAHAM: including the media, a celebrity porn lawyer.
MCCONNELL: I can remember when that sort of thing was not put on the air. People didn't just peddle nonsense with no corroboration. That really exacerbated the problem. And a lot of Senate Democrats would mainstream that stuff right into their discussions and try to convince everybody that it somehow happened. No corroboration at all. Just rumors. All over the place.
INGRAHAM: Senator Merkley from Oregon was quite upset today. He said this.
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INGRAHAM: What are we missing here, senator?
MCCONNELL: I don't know what he's talking about. There was no evidence to corroborate any of the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh. Maybe he's on a different planet. I'm not sure.
INGRAHAM: Right now when you look back on this last couple of weeks, and you have had an incredible run of confirming circuit court judges and district court judges, but just this experience, lessons learned for the Republican Party, the Senate, maybe the president going forward?
MCCONNELL: Well, I think we have reaffirmed that in this country you're presumed innocent, the presumption is in favor of innocence. We also relearned that you can't -- you should not allow mobs to intimidate you. And I think it's a good lesson for us. I think it unified our conference, made us excited about the November election, was good for the American people to see that these people were stood up to and they didn't get away with it. They did not win. That's the most important thing.
INGRAHAM: How radical has the Democratic Party of today become?
MCCONNELL: It's a pretty wild bunch. It's pretty clear they were willing to do anything, say anything, to try to win. There's no boundaries.
INGRAHAM: Do you still have close friends in the Democratic caucus after all this, or are emotions pretty raw?
MCCONNELL: I think we'll get past it in terms of relationships. But it was a tough period, a tough period. I hope they learned a lesson. You can do this kind of thing, but it doesn't necessarily get you to victory.
INGRAHAM: Mitch McConnell, congratulations.
MCCONNELL: Thank you, Laura.
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