Mitch McConnell’s Former Chief of Staff Attacks Sen. Mike Lee for Criticizing GOP Leader

A former top staffer to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) lashed out at Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) for noting that the Senate Minority Leader appears indistinguishable from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

“What a joke this guy has turned into,” Holmes responded to a tweet from Lee. “I’ve tried to be diplomatic but I think I’ve hit the edge of my grace. Got a lot of great stories you’ll all love about this cat.”

What a joke this guy has turned into. I’ve tried to be diplomatic but I think I’ve hit the edge of my grace. Got a lot of great stories you’ll all love about this cat. https://t.co/tAiNWpWRt1

— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) January 15, 2024

Lee tweeted a link to an article that first appeared in The Daily Beast that reads, “Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer’s Big Secret: They’re Closer Than Ever,” with Lee expressing his belief that Republicans have suffered from the relationship of the two Senate leaders.

“This article correctly notes that Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell ‘have consistently found unity.’ They’ve done so in a way that consistently advances the Democrats’ priorities,” Lee said. “Can someone remind me which one is a Republican?”

Holmes, who served as chief of staff to McConnell and managed one of his Senate campaigns, is now a political consultant and podcaster.

The article reads:

Ukraine aid. Israel. Immigration. Military holds. Appropriations. Even small agreements on temporary funding bills. Schumer and McConnell seem to be regularly in agreement. And these aren’t small or uncontroversial topics…

The No. 2 for Schumer and Senate Democrats, Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), told The Daily Beast last week that the relationship between the two leaders is “better than ever.”

“I just think both of them were looking for an opportunity to agree on some things, and they found it,” Durbin said.

The article then points to a shared commitment to continued subsidization of Ukraine’s war with Russia with American taxpayer dollars as the primary issue binding the two together:

Senators from both parties told The Daily Beast they have noticed boosted communications and meetings between the two leaders in recent months, crediting their shared commitment to Ukraine.

“It looks better, and I feel good about it when I see them two working and talking,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said of the leaders’ working relationship.

While making it clear she wasn’t privy to their dynamics, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) agreed that Schumer and McConnell seemed to be getting along. “It appears as though they’re much more engaged with one another recently,” she said, citing Ukraine aid as a chief area of agreement.

A growing “America First” faction of the GOP has criticized Ukraine aid as a misappropriation of resources better spent domestically. But McConnell has been steadfast in his support, bemoaning the “fickleness of Western support for Ukraine” in a speech just last week.

Holmes’ attack comes the same weekend Lee endorsed Trump. McConnell and Trump had a very public falling out towards the end of Trump’s first term after which he has hardly spoken Trump’s name.

Yet While McConnell has kept any activities working against Trump behind the scenes, his allies have been willing to be much more vocal.

Lee is not alone in harboring criticisms of McConnell. A recent Monmouth University Poll found the 81-year-old, first elected to the Senate in 1984 and now in his seventh six-year term, at a staggeringly low six percent nationwide approval rating — the lowest overall rating of any lawmaker in Congress.

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.