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It was tempting to think that once the post-election drama subsided, and Republican officials started to resolve their intra-party differences, Sen. Rick Scott would start to focus less attention on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and more on governing, especially with his 2024 re-election campaign coming up.
But those assuming the feud would soon fade were mistaken. As Roll Call reported, those watching the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) received a timely reminder about their divisions yesterday.
... Scott took aim at his fellow Republicans. While he did not cite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by name, he criticized “establishment Republicans” that he said have repeatedly capitulated to Democrats.
“It’s not just the Democrats in Washington who are destroying our country,” the senator said. “You’ve heard the famous quote: We’ve met the enemy and he is us. Unfortunately, some of the leaders of our own Republican establishment, they’ve been in Washington way too long and they’ve forgotten why they came here. They’ve gotten used to caving in to the Democrats.”
The idea that McConnell is contributing to the destruction of the United States, and Scott sees him as an “enemy,” represents a new rhetorical escalation from the far-right Floridian.
And in case there were any doubts as to which of his GOP colleagues he was referring, The Hill’s report went on to quote Scott saying, “When I took on Sen. McConnell, I knew it would be hard, and I assumed I would have a hard time winning. But we have to start somewhere. Everyone in Washington said I was nuts, and I might be. But we can’t put up with this b.s. anymore.”
He added, “My belief is that my challenge to Sen. McConnell was not the end of something, it was the beginning of something.
From time to time, there will be interpersonal tensions between members of the same party who struggle to get along. But revisiting our earlier coverage, the burning fire of contempt between Scott and McConnell is a sight to behold.
The animosity between the Republicans was painfully obvious last year, leading the duo to trade shots in public, with the Floridian writing a column in September 2022 that threw around words like “cowardice” and “treasonous” in apparent reference to McConnell.
After the 2022 midterm elections, Scott took the tensions to a new level: Hoping to parlay failure into a promotion, he ran against McConnell for Senate GOP leader. As we’ve discussed, the incumbent prevailed with relative ease, though it was the first challenge during McConnell’s tenure in the party leadership, and the fight was emblematic of the deep division between the two Republicans.
Last month, McConnell — on the heels of stripping Scott of a committee assignment he wanted — raised the stakes a bit more, denouncing an element of his GOP colleague’s radical policy blueprint, and at CPAC this week, Scott returned rhetorical fire, suggesting McConnell is helping “destroy our country.”
The Associated Press’ Seung Min Kim recently explained that McConnell "loathes" Scott. By all appearances, the feeling is mutual.
It’s unlike any intra-party fight we’ve seen in many years.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.