Republicans balk at Trump playing a role in the fight to replace McConnell

SenateRepublicans have a clear message for former president Donald Trump about the race to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: stay out of this.

After they got over the initial shock of McConnell’s announcement on Wednesday, the race to replace him – namely among the “Three Johns,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso and Senator John Cornyn of Texas – has begun at a quick pace. Friends of The Independent’sInside Washington newsletter Stef Kight and Stephen Neukam at Axios reported that Trump wants National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines of Montana to run for the job.

But Republicans expressed scepticism about Trump playing a role in replacing McConnell, his longtime nemesis.

Unsurprisingly, some of the Republicans who voted to convict Trump for his actions on January 6 don’t want him to have a role at all. Senator Lisa Murkowski said “I don’t” before brushing off a question from The Independent. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana didn’t want Trump to intervene.

“He should play no role whatsoever,” he told The Independent, saying that it would cross lines between the executive and legislative branches. “And the executive should not be picking the leadership of a congressional body. Period, end of story.”

That may not come as a surprise, given their dislike of Trump. But even more pro-Trump Republicans say the former president will not have as much sway.

“The Republican conference picks the leader,” Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who endorsed Trump, tersely told The Independent.

Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told The Independent that the conference needed to sort it out themselves (for the uninitiated, Republicans call