Vice President JD Vance castigated Sen. Mitch McConnell on Tuesday over the former GOP leader’s opposition to a key Pentagon nominee — an unusual swipe at a prominent member of Vance’s own party and his former colleague.
Vance lashed out shortly after McConnell cast the only Republican vote against President Donald Trump’s pick of Elbridge Colby to be the Defense Department’s policy chief.
“Mitch’s vote today — like so much of the last few years of his career — is one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen,” Vance wrote on X.
It’s hardly the first time the vice president has criticized McConnell. The two split over a debate on Ukraine aid last year when Vance was still a member of the Senate.
McConnell has voted for most of Trump’s nominees but Colby joins a list of notable high-profile defections, particularly in the national security space. In a lengthy statement Tuesday, McConnell argued that Colby’s confirmation would boost the isolationist wing within the Trump administration.
“Elbridge Colby’s long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” McConnell said.
The Senate confirmed Colby on 54-45 vote. McConnell did not respond when a reporter asked him in the Capitol halls about Vance’s comment Tuesday.
