The Democratic Primary debates start June 26th and 27th. They’ll be getting hard-hitting questions from such stalwart journalists as (checks notes)…Rachel Maddow?

You can guess what kind of night it’s going to be. While I expect NBC to do everything they can to protect Joe Biden, perhaps we’ll see some off-the-script action. The game will be to focus on Trump but eventually, if any of these other candidates want to win, they’ll have to start going after each other.

For Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell though, these debates just aren’t that important.

This has some in the media presenting this as playing hardball.

“Senators’ teams are expecting Mitch McConnell to schedule Senate proceedings on Wednesday and Thursday to force them to fly to the debate directly from D.C. rather than getting to situate themselves.” https://t.co/CNtVxNyWJn

— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) June 23, 2019

Welcome to 2019, where actually asking elected officials to work is considered controversial.

https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY/status/1142872636093022211?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1142872636093022211&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2019%2F06%2F23%2Fcocaine-mitch-strikes-again-this-time-targeting-senate-dems-running-in-2020%2F

While Cocaine Mitch probably had sticking it to these do-nothing Democrats in the back of his mind, the truth is that remaining in session is absolutely crucial right now. They were already scheduled to be off the first week of July. While most of us get a single day off (and some no day off), Congress gets the entire week for some reason.

That means that there’s no way to take Thursday and Friday off, as working on immigration issues is vital right now. Trump agreed to a two-week delay in a major ICE deportation operation after Pelosi requested it. While a deal is unlikely, you can’t make an attempt at one if you take that entire two weeks off.

While CNN wants to spin this as underhanded politics from those mean ole Republicans, it’s actually completely normal. There are always proceedings on Wednesday and Thursday.

As it stands though, most of the 2020 Democrat candidates who double as Senators will skip things anyway, because actually doing their job is less important than preening on MSNBC for a primary they won’t win.

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