Rick Scott slams Mitch McConnell for Senate dictatorship

Sen Rick Scott in Sarasota. Photo by Jacob Ogles.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott told supporters at a Sarasota rally that he’s trying to end abuse of power in the Senate. And it’s not just the Democratic majority he wants out, he said, as he trashed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by name.

“In the Senate, there’s two dictatorships,” the Naples Republican said. “There’s a McConnell dictatorship on the Republican side, and then there’s the (Charles) Schumer dictatorship.”

Schumer, a New York Democrat, serves as Majority Leader, but by Scott’s telling, Schumer and McConnell effectively decide final policy decisions in private and dictate to caucuses what to support on the floor.

“We have no input,” Scott said. “So this idea that we’re all supposed to represent our states is not working.

Scott has now engaged in public feuding with McConnell for years. A schism came into view when Scott led the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2022 and released a controversial policy agenda that McConnell quickly rebuked. After Senate Republicans suffered a net loss in seats in the Midterm Elections, Scott ran against McConnell for GOP Caucus Leader, a race he lost less than two weeks after the General Election that year.

After McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, announced he will step down from leadership after this year, Scott declared he will once again run for the post.

At the Republican Party of Sarasota Candidates Rally on Sunday, he stressed the importance that Florida voters first re-elect him as Senator for a second term.

“If we overwhelm them (Democrats) in absentee ballots, in early voting and on Election Day,” Scott said, “if we do that, we’re gonna have the White House, we’re gonna have the Senate, and hopefully when we do that we’ll a new Republican leader from Florida.”

The same event saw speeches from U.S. Reps. Greg Steube and Vern Buchanan, and Scott expressed hope the House members will return to a larger Republican majority in the lower chamber.

He also attacked likely Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for failures overseeing border policy, and for her liberal voting record in the Senate. That was a frequent attack throughout the event.

A close ally of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Scott flogged Democrats for plans to switch nominees late in the election cycle.

“Democrats say that Donald Trump or Republicans are a threat to democracy,” he said. “So think about this. They figured out when they watched the debate that Joe Biden couldn’t win. So they picked somebody that never won a Primary, didn’t go through the process. She didn’t win one Primary.”