Senator Mitch McConnell took a subtle jab at President-elect Donald Trump during a speech on Saturday night.
Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Kentucky senator claimed that current “influential voices” were forgetting the threat of China and Russia and neglecting the history of the Cold War.
“Within the party Ronald Reagan once led so capably, it is increasingly fashionable to suggest that the sort of global leadership he modeled is no longer America’s place,” McConnell said per Politico which also wrote that he received a “standing ovation” after his speech. “But let’s be absolutely clear: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline,” referring to Trump’s slogan and seemingly taking a swipe at the president-elect.
US President Donald Trump speaks alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), as they hold a meeting about tax reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, September 5, 2017.
McConnell proceeded to criticize elements of both the Republican and Democratic party, claiming that they’re bolstering a “dangerous fiction” about the U.S.’s position in global politics.
“At both ends of our politics, a dangerous fiction is taking hold—that America’s primacy and the fruits of our leadership are self-sustaining,” he said. “Even as allies across NATO and the Indo-Pacific renew their own commitments to hard power, to interoperability, and to collective defense, some now question America’s own role at the center of these force-multiplying institutions and partnerships.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives to a news conference after a lunch meeting with Senate Republicans U.S. Capitol 26, 2023 in Washington, DC.
After stepping aside as GOP leader, McConnell is set to take on the role of chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations panel, a committee that helps regulate the Pentagon’s budget. During his speech, he urged for “generational investments in the national defense enterprise” and bolstering weapons production.
“The Pentagon is not equipped to meet the demands of protracted or multi-theater conflict,” he said. “Neither is our defense industrial base.”
“Patriotic companies have more work to do to expand production capacity. And they need to do it today, rather than wait for contracts we all know are coming,” McConnell continued. “We need to adopt new technologies more quickly and expand production capacity at the same time.”
