Democrat Adam Jentleson can recite chapter and verse about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s bitter partisanship: he served as deputy chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the Obama years. And in an interview with New York Magazine, Jentleson has a warning for President-elect Joe Biden: expect the worst from McConnell.
Jentleson discusses the state of the U.S. Senate in his upcoming book, “Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy.” It remains to be seen whether McConnell will be Senate majority leader or Senate minority leader in 2021 — that will be determined by what happens in the two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia in January. And when New York Magazine’s Ben Jacobs asked Jentleson, during the interview, “how important” the outcome of those Senate races will be for Biden’s incoming administration, he replied, “It’s all the difference in the world.”
Jentleson told Jacobs, “It is night and day. That ranges from prospects for passing legislation and having his nominees confirmed to who controls the committees and the day-to-day business and sets the agenda of the Senate. So, it’s two seats that could lead to two very different prospects for Joe Biden when he is inaugurated in January.” Continue reading.