Gerth: McConnell should have been booed at the RNC, but not for the reason MAGAs did it

When Mitch McConnell stood on the floor of the Republican National Convention to announce he and the other delegates from Kentucky were casting their votes to nominate Donald Trump for president, the crowd booed.

I get it.

He should have been booed.

He should be booed every time he stands to speak. Whether at the RNC, on the Senate floor or if he says grace at dinner at home. He should be met with a chorus of hoots.

McConnell: “Bless us, oh Lord, and these thy gifts …”

Elaine Chao: “Booooooo. Booooooo.”

He’s done a lot of things that are boo-worthy.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid the MAGA Republicans were booing him for all the wrong reasons.

Now, this isn’t the first time McConnell has been booed.

He’s been to Fancy Farm most years since he was elected to the Senate in 1984, and most politicians are nearly booed off the stage by rowdy crowds there each year.

He was booed when Trump mentioned his name at the CPAC convention in 2021.

He was booed at Freedom Hall when he appeared there at a Trump rally in 2017 early in Trump’s term where the then-president promised to replace Obamacare, fix the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and stop immigration. (Trump didn’t accomplish any of those things, and in fact, didn’t even propose legislation to do any of them.)

There were even several times a few years ago when he was booed at restaurants in Louisville when he and his wife or he and his political advisers went to eat.

He’s used to this.

What he’s not used to is being booed at an event made up of GOP insiders. But then again, what GOP insiders are and how they act has changed dramatically in the age of Donald Trump.

I wasn’t in Milwaukee to ask boo-birds what they were booing about, but I can make a pretty good guess.

The were booing because McConnell once said Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the Jan. 6 insurrection.

They should have been booing because McConnell, as Senate Republican leader, has served as Trump’s chief enabler during his administration and the four years since it ended.

They were booing because McConnell voted for President Joe Biden’s $454 billion infrastructure plan — again an infrastructure plan that Trump never saw fit to introduce.

Fear is McConnell's motivation: Gerth: Trump is self-serving and entitled. McConnell bows to fear and backs him anyway.

They should have been booing because McConnell chose to play politics and refused to support the bipartisan plan to crack down on illegal immigration that he helped craft — simply because Biden supported it and Trump didn’t.

They were booing because Chao, McConnell’s wife and Trump’s transportation secretary, was the first member of his cabinet to resign in protest of Trump’s actions that led to the insurrection and his refusal for hours to intervene to stop it.

What they should have been booing was McConnell’s shenanigans that led to the most radical Supreme Court in the history of the United States that has stripped women of the right to an abortion, struck down the executive branch’s rule-making ability and created from thin air immunity for a former president.

They should have been booing because the craven McConnell refused to stand up for his own wife when Trump attacked her and used racist slurs.

They were booing because McConnell supports funding Ukraine's war with Russia and doesn't support Trump's position, which is to allow his authoritarian hero, Russian President and war criminal Vladimir Putin, do whatever the hell he wants.

Weak and self-serving Mitch McConnell endorses Donald Trump, revealing just how weak and self-serving he truly is

They should have been booing because McConnell sold his dark soul to remain in power during the age of Trump.

There are plenty of reasons to boo McConnell.

But the MAGAs don’t have a clue as to what they are.

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Mitch McConnell was booed at RNC, but for the wrong reason