Senator Mitch McConnell on Trump: We don’t elect ‘dictators’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can see the good and bad when it comes to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“He brags about being a deal-maker,” McConnell said. “Obviously, to pass legislation there has to be compromise. Give and take. That’s the way the system works. That’s the good news about Donald Trump.”

“I think the bad news is that he needs to have a full understanding of what he can and can’t do,” he said. “We don’t have dictators in this country. There are clear parameters established in the Constitution about what you can and can’t do on your own.”

Related: Congressman Dave Reichert calls Donald Trump a joke

McConnell has come out in support of Trump’s run for president.

McConnell spoke with KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz about his new memoir, “The Long Game.” But while chatting about the book, McConnell discussed his party’s controversial candidate for president.

The Republican senator from Kentucky said that Trump rose to be the presumptive nominee because primary voters seek someone outside the norm to offer something new. Moving forward, he has some advice for Trump.

“I would advise him … to tone down the gratuitous attacks on people who didn’t support him; who ran against him in the primary seasons, and going after people like the judge in this case he has for Trump University, suggesting that he would be biased simply because of his ethnicity,” McConnell said. “We don’t do that sort of thing in America. I think it would be a good idea for him to tone down those kinds of comments.”

In the end, McConnell said, it comes down to the direction of the county over the next presidential term.

“Can the country stand another four more years like the last eight?” he asked. “Hillary Clinton will be like a third term of Barack Obama. I don’t think so. We need to get this country going — even though our candidate is certainly a challenge and he reminds us of that on almost a daily basis.”

“I think America needs to take a different path,” McConnell said. “I’m convinced if Trump is elected, he will have to operate within a right-of-center world – a world occupied by people like Paul Ryan and myself.”

Follow @https://twitter.com/DyerOxley