CLEVELAND — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell whose previous endorsement of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump seemed tepid fully embraced the New York developer a little more at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night.
“I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching the nomination,” McConnell said in May, cautioning that Trump had an “opportunity and the obligation to unite our party around our goals.”
McConnell, accused by grassroots conservatives for being part of GOP establishment politics, was booed when he was named as temporary chair of the convention on Monday and received polite applause from convention attendees and delegates during his remarks on Tuesday.
McConnell focused his Tuesday night speech on passing GOP bills through the Senate as well as appointing justices on the Supreme Court that conservatives could support. McConnell continues to refuses to allow the upper chamber to take up Obama Supreme Court appointment Merrick Garland.
“With Donald Trump in the White House, Senate Republicans will build on the work we’ve done and pass more bills into law than any Senate in years,” McConnell told Republican state delegates.
Reminding delegates of the passing of conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he said, “On that sad day when we lost Justice Scalia, I made another pledge that Barack Obama would not fill this seat,” McConnell said. “That honor will go to Donald Trump next year.”