WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not quite "Trump-McConnell 2020," but it might as well be.
As he runs for reelection, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is positioning himself as the president's wingman, his trusted right hand in Congress, transformed from a behind-the-scenes player into a prominent if sometimes reviled Republican like none other besides Donald Trump himself.
"In Washington, President Trump and I are making America great again!" he declared at a rally in Kentucky, his voice rising over protesters.
Other than Democrat Nancy Pelosi — and more recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — no current politician has so quickly become such a high-profile object of partisan scorn. McConnell was heckled last weekend at his home state's annual "Fancy Farm" political picnic, and protesters outside his Louisville house hurled so many profanities that Twitter temporarily shut down his account for posting video of them online.
Undaunted, he revels in the nickname he's given himself — the "Grim Reaper," bragging that he's burying the House Democrats' agenda — though he seems stung by one lobbed by opponents, "Moscow Mitch."
But the Democrats' agenda includes gun legislation to require background checks that Trump now wants to consider, forcing McConnell to adjust his earlier refusal to do so. The Senate leader has been here before, pushing ahead with a Trump priority that's unpopular with most Republicans. But this will test both his relationship with the president and his grip on the GOP majority.
All while he's campaigning to keep his job.
McConnell is even more dependent on Trump's popularity in Kentucky than on his own, a different political landscape from the one he faced in 2014, before the president took the White House.
"They need each other," says Scott...
