LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Comfortable on his home turf here at the Kentucky Country Ham Breakfast and Auction, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not address the growing rift between congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump, opting instead to spend a notable portion of his address Thursday criticizing the former administration.

“The single figure that stands about above all else is we didn’t have a single year of three percent growth,” McConnell said of the last eight years at the annual event hosted by the Kentucky Farm Bureau. “This new administration in Washington and this Congress is interested in getting America growing again.”

He touted the 14 regulations repealed this year using the Congressional Review Act and also knocked the Waters of the United States rule, which he said “is on the way to the ash heap if history.”

The majority leader did address some divergent points between his beliefs and the president’s. Despite comments from Trump as recently as Tuesday that he believed the North America Free Trade Agreement would be terminated, McConnell voiced support for free trade agreements and said there was more work to be done to sell the benefits of those deals.

“I’m a little bit concerned about some of the trade rhetoric,” he said. “The assumption that every free trade agreement is a loser for America is largely untrue, so we have a selling job to do.”