Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican Leader (Ky.), says Joe Biden’s a “good guy.” This is in contrast to former President Trump who has repeatedly tried to portray the president as a corrupt mastermind of schemes to steal election and persecute his political opponents.

McConnell has endorsed Trump and says that there are many compelling reasons to remove Biden from the office. He has also laid out a roadmap for Trump to follow at the debate on Thursday and while campaigning to criticize Biden’s performance in office.

“I know Joe Biden fairly well.” McConnell said to an audience in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday: “He’s a nice guy; I like his personal.” McConnell was referring to their more than 20-year history in the Senate as well as the deals they made when Biden served as vice president.

McConnell, however, said that he is not a big fan of Biden’s record. He also did not buy the president’s attempt to portray himself as a centrist who would govern in 2020.

He said, “I never thought of him as moderate in the Senate but he ran for office as a moderate.” “But once the president was elected, he signed up pretty much with the extreme left of the Democratic Party. This has created a new set of problems for those of you in business.

He said, “This administration has created a regulatory nightmare.”

McConnell said that he believes there is a compelling case against Biden’s reelection without resorting to the politics of destruction which Trump has used often against Biden, with limited success.

Trump has called the president “Crooked Joe”, and accused him of a variety of crimes, including the theft of the election in 2020, corrupt business deals, and taking drugs before the State of the Union Address.

Trump called Biden “a stone cold thief,” “a dumb son of a —-,”, a mental catastrophe,” and even made fun of the president’s stammer.

He has also hinted that he’ll use more personal insults against his opponent during the Thursday presidential debate in Atlanta. At a recent rally he asked a crowd of fans, “Should i be tough and nasty, and just say ‘You’re worst president in history? Should I be calm and nice to him and let him speak?

Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky, and a McConnell watcher for many years, believes that McConnell may be telling moderate Republicans who don’t like Trump to focus more on the differences in policy between the two candidates than their personalities.

Cross explained that McConnell may be appealing to Republicans who don’t particularly like Trump – just as he does not – but aren’t focused on policy differences. They might be more inclined than usual to vote for Trump because of the stark contrast.

The Kentucky Senator, who is an expert debater, says that Biden’s handling of the economy, inflation and failure to stop the huge surge of migrants crossing the southern border can be used against him.

McConnell noted that former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers had warned Biden, in May 2021, that “we are taking very substantial risks with inflation” and recommended putting the brakes on fiscal stimuli to prevent prices from rising.

McConnell, McConnell’s successor in office, said that Biden’s Build Better agenda was “a huge amount of money” and far more than most people thought it made sense.

The GOP leader stated that “Summers”… told them at the time: “You do this and you’ll have 40-years of inflation.” They did it, and so do we. “It is easy to begin inflation and very difficult to stop it.”

McConnell said that Biden’s record on the border is his second biggest political liability.

He said that the southern border issue was the second biggest unforced mistake of the Biden Administration and the reason why the president finds himself in a tough political position. “There was a clear change of direction that began the day President Biden took office. You can see the results.”

Between the time Biden became president and the beginning of this year, the Department of Homeland Security has recorded over 6.3 million encounters with migrants at the southern border. This includes 300,000 unaccompanied minors who were allowed to enter the country and placed in sponsorship.

McConnell stated that if Biden loses this election, it will be due to two unforced errors: the first being the $2.6 trillion inflation and the second, which is essentially opening the border.

Cross noted that McConnell was always open about his regard for Biden despite their disagreements on policy.

He said, “He has always been critical of the policies he’s implemented and complimentary about him personally.”

McConnell had a fallout with Trump in December 2020, after McConnell congratulated Biden for winning the election despite Trump insisting on the lack of evidence to support his claim that the results were tainted.

McConnell waited to recognize Biden as president-elect until after the Electoral College voted.

Biden and McConnell crafted several important deals together during the Obama administration when Biden served as vice president.

The famous deal was made to extend 98 percent tax cuts from the Bush era and avoid the fiscal cliff, which threatened to plunge the economy into chaos at the end 2012.

The two also worked together on an agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling in order to avoid a possible default by the summer of 2011 and to extend Bush’s tax cuts that were set to expire for another two years following the midterm elections of 2010.

McConnell has supported some of Biden’s most high-profile legislative accomplishments, including the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package Congress passed 2021, and a major 2022 investment in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

McConnell said to his Kentucky constituents this week that Americans have historically liked divided government control but also expect legislators to work across the party lines to achieve things.

He noted that “we have divided the government more than once since World War II.” “The American public is not in love either with one side or the other, so they split the government. It’s not that you should do nothing. Instead, I would suggest looking for areas where people can agree and implementing them.

He added, “My biggest critics today [say] I sometimes have done deals with other sides.”