Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, was not receiving much love from people in his own state, who booed him and yelled “RETIRE” and “DITCH MITCH” as he talked at a community gathering in Kentucky over the weekend.
At the 143rd yearly Fancy Farm picnic, a summer tradition in Kentucky since 1881, McConnell was speaking, and sometimes he was entirely drowned out by the booing and mocking with the embarrassing experience captured on camera.
The 81-year-old professional politician persisted despite the audience’s disapproval.
The 81-year-old congressman remarked, “This is my 28th Fancy Farm and I want to assure you it is not my last. The people of this state have chosen me seven times to do this job, and I want you to know how grateful I am.”
The yearly celebration is sponsored by St. Jerome, a nearby Catholic church, and takes place at Fancy Farm, a small town in the southwest of the state.
“So, we know that the political speaking attracts folks from all over the state of Kentucky to the Picnic but it’s the 19,000 pounds of BBQ that makes our picnic special. We once held the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest One Day Picnic and BBQ. You won’t find any better BBQ pork and mutton anywhere,” the church’s website claims.
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Former President Donald Trump, who released a video of the boos to his Truth Social platform, has frequently criticized McConnell.
“I AGREE!” Trump penned in a hilarious post. “BOOOOO—RETIRE, RETIRE, RETIRE—BOOOOO!!!”
McConnell mercilessly booed in his home state of Kentucky.
Attendees yelled "retire" and "ditch Mitch."pic.twitter.com/IYQve88nYi
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 6, 2023
Trump also took aim at the minority leader publically on Saturday as he spoke at the Silver Elephant Gala in Columbia, South Carolina. He claimed that McConnell is not doing enough to defend himself from the Biden administration’s legal onslaught while also speculating that the opposition might have damaging information regarding McConnell.
“These guys, what they’re doing with this election interference, and the Senate has to step up and do something. The House is doing a lot of things,” Trump said during the jubilant gathering. “But the Senate under perhaps the worst leader in the history of our country running the Senate, Mitch McConnell, has to step up and do something.”
“I’m telling you, Lindsey, they have something on Mitch McConnell. There’s no way that he’s doing this. They’ve got something on Mitch McConnell,” Trump remarked, pointing to Senator Lindsey Graham (of South Carolina), who was present.
Trump: What they’re doing with this election interference and the Senate needs to step up. The House is doing a lot of things… They have something on Mitch McConnell. There’s no way he’s doing this. They got something on Mitch McConnell pic.twitter.com/3zEISyKGa7
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2023
The calls on McConnell to step down come at a time when the 80-year-old lawmaker has been struggling with health issues typical of older people.
He was hospitalized previously in the year after falling down at an exclusive dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Washington, D.C., and missed a significant period of time in the Senate as a result.
In a frightening event last month, he lost all control while speaking to reporters from the podium and had to be helped away by his senator colleagues. He rapidly recovered, but it made him appear less qualified for the position.
CNN interviewed some people at the Fancy Farm picnic where McConnell spoke and one young voter told the outlet, “I’m against older candidates, the current president, Mitch McConnell. I think that they’ve run their course in politics, I think they’d be good for backing people now. But I think politics now is more of a young man’s game.”
McConnell and Trump have a troubled past together. While the two developed a professional connection while Trump was in the White House, Trump has routinely attacked McConnell ever since he left.
In February 2021, after McConnell reprimanded him over the January 6 Capitol disturbance, Trump proclaimed, “Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”
Trump started regularly attacking Elaine Chao, a former member of his Cabinet who is also McConnell’s wife, last year, calling her “China loving wife, Coco Chow.”
Late last month, sources told NBC’s Garrett Haake and Sahil Kapur that McConnell had a fall on July 14 while getting off an aircraft at Reagan National Airport:
McConnell, 81, was not seriously hurt, and was seen at the Capitol later that day, where he interacted with at least one reporter.
The July 14 fall, which has not been previously reported, occurred after the flight out of Washington was canceled while everyone was on board. McConnell, R-Ky., who was a passenger on the plane, had a “face plant,” someone who was on the plane at the time but did not witness the fall told NBC News. That passenger also said they spoke to another passenger who helped tend to McConnell after the fall.
The Senate’s top Republican has also recently been using a wheelchair as a precautionary measure when navigating crowded airports, according to a source familiar with his practices.
The incident happened several months after McConnell concussed himself after falling at a hotel in Washington.
