The Washington Post unleashed a scathing editorial from its editorial board Thursday evening, singling out Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for doing nothing in the face of Trump’s increasingly brazen power grabs.

“Mitch McConnell just rolls over,” the Post said in the headline, before getting into a hypothetical situation where Democrats have the White House again, and are invoking Presidential power grabs, Trump style, to circumvent Congress.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Imagine indeed if, two years from now, a President Booker, Harris, Warren or Bennet, seizing on the Parkland massacre’s anniversary, invoked emergency powers to halt the killing of innocents — by banning the sale of semiautomatic weapons, imposing uniform background checks for gun purchases or levying a stiff federal surtax on the sale of gun parts and ammunition,” the Post wrote.

“It seems logical that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, having approved Mr. Trump’s emergency, would acquiesce in future such emergency declarations,” they added, before saving McConnell again. “By becoming a rubber stamp for Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell has set a precedent: that he is prepared to accept any president who would treat the will of Congress, and the Constitution, with cavalier contempt.”

The piece ends with: “By his declaration, Mr. Trump will inaugurate a new, imperial phase of his presidency. Mr. McConnell, who had previously warned him against such an action, will show he has perfected a trick: roll over and play dead.”

Read the full editorial here.