https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/11/politics/mitch-mcconnell-congress-shutdown/index.html
As shutdown drags on, McConnell heads home to Kentucky, leaving Democrats angry.
CNN)Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was not in the Capitol Friday, when some furloughed federal workers missed their first paychecks and the government shutdown tied the mark for the longest in American history.
McConnell, who has been brutalized by Democrats for blocking votes to reopen the government, skipped his customary remarks as the Senate gaveled in, when he might have defended his decision not to allow votes until a broad deal is reached between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over border wall funding.
Instead, McConnell -- who was headed home to Kentucky, according to his staff -- and other Republicans largely left the floor to Democrats who gave speech after speech assailing them for not standing up for federal workers by standing up to Trump.
"Sen. McConnell and his caucus are AWOL in the middle of this shutdown. They are hiding out. They want to hide behind the President instead of doing their jobs as leaders in a co-equal separate branch of the government," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen a Democrat from Maryland as he walked off the floor after discussing the plight of federal workers in his state. "This is the Trump shutdown, but Sen. McConnell and his caucus are becoming bigger and bigger accomplices."
