Mitch McConnell Explains Why Joe Biden Would be His Desert Island Democratic President

Joe Biden has spent the vast majority of his adult life in the United States senate. He was first elected to office in 1973 when he was just 31 years old. And the only years since then that he didn’t spend working with other senators were the 4 years Donald Trump was president.

And during that time, Biden was known for his relationships with Republican lawmakers. He had a famous friendship with John McCain. And Biden was apparently even able to develop a very strong relationship with Mitch McConnell.

During a Tuesday event at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, McConnell paid the current president high praise. The senate minority leader was asked, “You’re stranded on a desert island and you can only have one companion. Your choices are Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter. Who do you choose?”

McConnell eliminated Carter, Clinton and Obama. He did have high praise for the 44th president, though. The lawmaker said of Obama, “the only thing I didn’t like about him is he had a tendency to tell me to my face what I thought. A]nd one time I had to say, ‘Mr. President, really, that’s not what I think.”

The senate minority leader then moved onto the current president. “Biden and I did four bipartisan deals during the Obama administration,” he said. “I consider him a personal friend. I was the only Republican who went to his son Beau’s funeral, so that would be an easy choice. I think Biden is a first-rate person.”

These are very nice sentiments from McConnell. No one should expect, though, that this makes it any more likely that the two will be able to pass legislation together.