McConnell: 'Moderates are gone' in today's 'radical' Democratic Party

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a pitch Monday for his reelection during a candidate forum organized by the Kentucky Farm Bureau.

He characterized the Democratic Party as a "much more radical" party than "you've ever seen."

"I can tell you the moderates are gone," McConnell said. "I know Joe Biden. We did some deals during the Obama years. I like him personally. He's not going to resist the whole thrust of the national Democratic Party."

McConnell said he's "never seen a more dramatic difference between the two parties than we have today."

McConnell faces Democratic candidate Amy McGrath in November.

"Electing my opponent transfers the majority leader job from Kentucky to New York. Electing my opponent makes the District of Columbia a state so the influence peddlers and lobbyists have two senators just like we do," McConnell said. 

"Electing my opponent to the Senate, presumably with a Democratic majority, makes the Senate dramatically less interested in anything between the two coasts. I can't think of a clearer rationale for supporting me than that," he added.

He also said he opposes statehood for Puerto Rico and that the Democrats would support it if they win the majority in Congress.

McConnell emphasized increased broadband access as an ongoing issue in rural areas that he wants to continue working on in the future.

"We've got to continue working on this and putting money into it," he said. "If you can't go back to class, how can you distance learn if you don't have adequate Internet access? So it's an ongoing issue. We're going to keep on working on it."

Addressing trade, McConnell said that there's no other sector of the economy that benefits more from international markets than agriculture. 

"We need more trade deals, not fewer," he said. "Generally speaking, America benefits from the international markets."

McConnell said the Republicans helped save "most farms in Kentucky" from the federal death tax, given that the tax reform law the GOP-led Congress passed in 2017 raises the estate tax exemption up to $22 million per family.

"I've always felt that was the worst tax since you have to meet both the IRS and the undertaker at the same time," he said. "That's particularly devastating to family farms trying to get them down from one generation to the next."

Speaking about the lack of a fourth stimulus package, McConnell said he laid out a $1 trillion package, which is "still a lot of money" but said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to spend $3 trillion. The House-passed HEROES Act is estimated to cost as much as $3.7 trillion.

"The capital right now is gripped in partisanship," he said. "We have so far not been able to get together on one last package, and the reason for that, I think, is the proximity of the election."

On infrastructure, McConnell mentioned that he previously teamed up with former California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer on the highway bill that expires in September. McConnell said the House Democrats' infrastructure bill is "so different" from the Senate's transportation bill, describing it as "totally left wing." The Kentucky senator said passing transportation legislation will most likely have to wait until after the election.

"The House transportation bill is the Green New Deal transportation bill," he said. "I mean, they are on Mars and we are on Venus."