Trump urges Rick Scott to challenge McConnell for Senate leadership

(Image credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Former President Donald Trump reportedly urged first-term Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to challenge Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for Senate Republican leadership during a private meeting at Mar-a-Lago this week, Politico reports.

According to someone familiar with the exchange, Scott changed the subject, telling Trump that right now his "only focus is on winning" back control of the Senate from Democrats.

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Scott, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, defied McConnell earlier this week by releasing an 11-point policy agenda for the 2022 midterms. McConnell had intended to avoid concrete proposals and make the elections a referendum on President Biden's leadership.

Scott's agenda includes barring the federal government from asking citizens to indicate their race or ethnicity on government forms, eliminating the Department of Education, completing the wall on the southern border and naming it after Trump, and making all Americans pay at least a nominal amount of income tax.

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Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.