Dana Perino: Schumer’s Using Renaming Russell Building After McCain To Divide the GOP

EXCERPT:

PERINO: "It’s sincere but also very politically clever on behalf of senator Schumer. If you think back that Democrats love John McCain when he was going against President Bush in the 2000 campaign, they could not stand him when he was against Obama. Then they loved him again when he was the foil against President Trump. I do believe that McCain has such an impact on many lives in the Senate. And Richard Russell, — if there is the main Senate building, there’s three of them but that’s where the senior senators are. He’s named after a guy that today, absolutely. He would question whether or not a building should be named after him against the same standard. So on the merit, you could see where that would be true. The other thing was that Senator Schumer has done is he has ensured that Republicans are going to be divided on this issue. Today, a bipartisan group was put together by senator McConnell talking about a range of issues, and the way that the Senate could honor McCain. The renaming of the building was not on it. Senator Schumer was asked, does McConnell support renaming the building? He says, you will have to ask him. All of these candidates will be asked, are you for renaming the building and they will face two things. One, it’s a distraction. They’d rather talk about the accomplishments of the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress. Number two, it ensures that, members of the Congress, do you think they want to get on the record talking about this when President Trump is watching? One tweet from President Trump could make a huge difference, and you could win by 27 points in the primary."