writer for the courier journal in kentucky. you were present when mitch mcconnellpressed to answer that. it doesn t seem like a complicated answer to me, but i know how the senate worked. how did that answer go over in kentucky? the republican party at least in kentucky is pretty split right now. those who like mitch mcconnell probably thought that was a pretty good answer. those who don t like him, the tea party sorts, probably weren t too happy with that answer. they think that he should have stood up and fought raising the debt ceiling without getting the changes in that the cuts in that they wanted. he didn t do it, and they re not going to be happy. when they say that he should have fought on the debt ceiling, joseph, do they two things. 2k0 they belie
country. and every time we ve been confronted with a potential crisis, the guy you re looking at is the one that stepped up and solved the problem, whether it was the fiscal cliff deal at the end of 2012 when everybody s taxes were going up, whenever it was last october in the 16th day of the government shutdown, or yesterday, or thursday, when it was clear that we needed to produce enough procedural votes to get to a debt ceiling vote in order to avoid a default. my job is to protect the country when i can. and to step up and lead on those occasions when it s required. that s what i did. joining me now, former ohio congressman steve latourette. he s president of the main street partnership. and joseph girth, political writer for the courier journal in kentucky. you were present when mitch mcconnell was being pressed to answer that.
the pole that my newspaper along with three other news organizations did recently that found that his favorable ratings were abysmal. 27% had favorable views of him. 50% of kentucky voters had unfavorable views of him. that s a tough nut to crack in an election year. he s got to figure out a way to increase his numbers. at the same time, possibly take down matt bevin, possibly take down allison grime grimes. his number against bevin looks strong at this point. he holds a 55-29 lead. but two years ago, dick lug re had a 55-30 lead over richard murdoch. mcconnell understands the threat and he sees it s he s prepared to take it off. joseph, where did he stray from the majority of voters in kentucky?
well, you know, i think of the careers of ted kennedy and robert byrd of west virginia. their voters never tired of them. they stayed in the senate until their last breath. joseph gerth, thank you very much for joining us tonight and steve latourette, thank you for joining us tonight. thank you. coming up, chris christie is raising money tonight for republican candidates. and former members of team christie are refusing to comply with subpoenas tonight. and the president focused on criminal justice today inform a meeting that included mark morial. and riots in a square filled with protesters.
vehicle to get elected, but once in it, they want to canalize it and criticize it. if he spent half as much energy trying to defeat democrats and gain control of the senate as he does bashing other republicans, we would have 60 votes in the senate. joseph, why is mitch mcconnell struggling in his re-election campaign? kentucky? not necessarily so much against the tea party challenge, but against the democratic challenger allison grimes who s running very close to him, basically a statistical tie in the polls. that to me is shocking for an incumbent senator and certainly shocking for an incumbent senator who is the leader of his party in the senate. it maybe shouldn t be all that shocking. you look back to tom daschle. it seems to me one of the hardest jobs in government is being the minority leader. because you have to be saying no at every turn. senator mcconnell s problem in kentucky, if you look back at