Exclusive – Ron Johnson: McConnell Resigning from Leadership ‘Gives Us an Opportunity’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to step down from his leadership position in November “gives us an opportunity,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, emphasizing the importance of the “process” in choosing a new leader.

When asked about his thoughts on McConnell’s eventual departure from his leadership position, Johnson said he appreciated that McConnell announced it to “give us the time to go through a process.”

RELATED VIDEO — Mitch McConnell to Step Down as Senate Republican Leader in November:

U.S. Senate

“I think gives us an opportunity. … I want our conference to really take a look at what we’re about. I’m suggesting we develop a mission statement,” he said.

“I come from the private sector. I think that’s important that an organization knows what it’s trying to accomplish, establish goals, and then hopefully leaders will emerge from that process and will commit to that mission statement and a far more collaborative process for leading the conference. So, this is going to take weeks, maybe months. And I appreciate the fact that Leader McConnell gave us that time to do so,” Johnson said, noting some positive aspects of McConnell’s leadership.

“To stay positive, I think his supreme moment of leadership was after the tragic death of Justice Scalia. He immediately came out and said, let’s let the American people decide the direction of the court. That was the right call. It was very helpful, I think, in the 2016 election. And we ended up with a conservative court because the American people decided to like Donald Trump and put Republicans in the majority in the Senate and confirmed some conservative justices. So, I mean, that was the supreme moment of leadership,” Johnson continued, noting that McConnell did not have what he described as a “very sterling record” on the deficit.

“He entered leadership with our debt under $10 trillion. Now, it’s 35 trillion. And over the entire time period, there’s only one person that was in the room with every debt, student negotiation, every appropriation, every budget negotiation, that was Mitch McConnell,” the senator explained.

When asked if he would step up as Senate Leader, Johnson made it clear he is “trying to lead a process to, again, develop that mission statement so that our conference can show the American public, this is what we’re about, this is what we’re going to do.”

“And I’ve already laid out somewhat of a mission statement to talk about what we’re for: Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, free markets by limiting government, and providing an effective counter to the policies and ideology the radical left is using to destroying this country,” Johnson said, emphasizing his efforts to “try and lead that process.”

LISTEN:

“And in that process, hopefully, leaders will emerge that the conference will identify and say, ‘Yeah, this is what we want to do this our mission statement, you’re the right person to lead this effort,'” he said.

Host Mike Slater pressed Johnson, asking, “If called to serve, sir, would you take on this mantle?”

The senator did not completely dismiss the prospect, telling Slater, “Well, I ran for a third term when I didn’t want to, because I didn’t want to see this country continue to circle the drain. So, I’m doing what I can to try and save this country.”

“I’m leading this process,” he said, noting that he believes Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) could be a good leader adding, “Let’s see where it all goes.”

“I want to go through a very thoughtful process and force whoever the leader that is chosen by the conference to have embraced this mission statement, but also a different way of operating a far more collaborative way of operating,” he added.

 Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.