(PatrioticPost)- A changing of the guard didn’t just happen in the White House on Wednesday; it happened in the U.S. Senate, too.
With the swearing in of new Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both from Georgia, on Inauguration Day, Democrats now technically have control of the upper chamber. There is currently a 50-50 split in members from the Republican and Democratic parties, but Democrats hold the technical voting edge since Vice President Kamala Harris would break all ties.
This technicality makes Democrat Chuck Schumer the new Senate Majority Leader and Republican Mitch McConnell the new Senate Minority Leader. The two are still working out details about how they will share power, though, since there isn’t a definitive numbers advantage either way.
This shift in the Senate has convinced some prominent conservative voices to call for a major change in GOP leadership in the Senate.
On Tuesday, Sean Hannity of Fox News said the Senate needs “new leadership,” calling on McConnell to resign from his position as the leader of the Republican Party. Hannity criticized McConnell for flip-flopping on his support for former President Donald Trump, while trying to re-assert “establishment control” over the GOP.
In his opening monologue, Hannity said:
“Senator McConnell would have more credibility with, now, his eagerness to re-establish the Republican moderates and establishment wing of the party and repudiate President Trump, if he were consistent, but ultimately, this is why Americans voted for Donald Trump and not 17 other establishment Republicans.”
Hannity did bring up a good point. At times during the Trump administration, McConnell would wholeheartedly back the president, showing his loyalty to him. Then, as the administration’s time in office dwindled, he started to slowly but surely back away that support.
McConnell went as far as publicly criticizing Trump for his supposed role in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building. Rumors swirl that there’s even a decent chance that McConnell would vote to convict Trump during the upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate.
During a floor speech Tuesday, McConnell said:
“The last time the Senate convened, we had just reclaimed the Capitol from violent criminals who tried to stop Congress from doing our duty. This mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the President and other powerful people. And they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government, which they did not like. But we pressed on.”
It’s that type of flip-flopping that has Hannity — and other conservative voices — unhappy with the job McConnell is doing as the head of the GOP in the Senate. Hannity continued:
“Establishment Republicans have no backbone, no principle, no courage, no vision. Too many politicians in D.C. are just far too willing to go along, get along and protect the swamp, and that is why conservatives like myself, well, we’re tired of these empty promises, and your rehearsed speeches, and at never getting anything done.”
