“I’m to the point that I think Mitch McConnell, to really bring unity to the Republican Party and get things done, I think Mitch McConnell ought to tender his resignation,” Steve Bannon said. | Paul Sancya/AP Bannon: Mitch McConnell should resign

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Wednesday called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to resign, telling Fox News that “there needs to be a sense of urgency in the Senate.”

“I’m to the point that I think Mitch McConnell, to really bring unity to the Republican Party and get things done, I think Mitch McConnell ought to tender his resignation,” Bannon, who returned to his job heading the conservative media outlet Breitbart News upon leaving the White House, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “What he ought to do is offer to resign as soon as taxes are done. We can’t do it in the middle of taxes. … Because, I’ve got to tell you, there needs to be a sense of urgency in the Senate.”


Bannon, with his brand of populism and nationalism, has railed often against the GOP establishment, a group for which McConnell (R-Ky.) is the standard-bearer. President Donald Trump, who ascended to the White House with a campaign built in large part on anti-establishment rhetoric, has alternated through his first months in office between working with McConnell on major legislation and feuding with him when that legislation has stalled.

The former White House chief strategist blamed McConnell for allowing legislation passed by the House to pile up on the Senate side of Capitol Hill, sparing vulnerable Democratic senators up for reelection in 2018 from having to take difficult votes on GOP-backed bills.

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“The House has actually voted on, I think it’s 180 bills that the Senate has not taken up, including many bills that would be a very difficult vote for Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill and Jon Tester and Heidi Heitkamp and all of these red-state Democrats that we need to take down in 2018,” Bannon said. “And Mitch McConnell’s refused to do it.”

McConnell's spokesperson declined to comment.