Rounds: McConnell Successor Needs to ‘Stand His Own Ground’ with Trump

Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’s successor needed to be independent from former President Donald Trump.

Partial transcript as follows:

JON KARL: By the way, I should point out that the former president’s had some choice words for you as – as you no doubt know. I think he called you – or questioned whether or not you were crazy or just stupid, a jerk, a RINO, a weak – anyway, we could go on. But – but how important is it for whoever the Senate leader is to have some degree of independence from – from Donald Trump? I mean I understand you say everybody needs to be on board in the general election, but how important is it to do what McConnell did, which is be willing to stand up to Trump?

ROUNDS: Well, that’s what I’m looking for in a leader. I want someone who will work with a president, but who also will stand his own ground. That’s one of the reasons why I very publicly and openly supported John Thune and I supported Mitch McConnell. I think John Thune will bring some – you know, a fresh breath. That always happens when you have a change in leadership.

And once again, you know, we’ve got some other folks that are going to take a look at it. They are good people. It’s not a matter of having a bad choice out there for those of us in the Senate, but we’ve got some really good choices. I just happen to think John Thune is the right guy at the right time. Great moral character. He’s the right kind of a guy. And I think he will be independent enough to where he will look out also, just like Mitch did, for the institution of the Senate itself. So, I’m optimistic. It’s the reason why I’m supporting him.

But as a Senate, our obligation is to look long term. We’re elected from every single state and we want to take care of our individual states, but we’ve also got the bigger picture of constitutionally what is right and also, in terms of national defense, we’ve always got to be looking at national defense as our primary responsibility. So, yes, we’ve got some – some other alternatives, but it’s very similar to what a president should have.

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