In a long interview with Yahoo News, Orrin Hatch discusses his new role as president pro tempore of the Senate and why he hopes to cultivate productive bipartisan relationships with Elizabeth Warren and other liberal senators.
Reports Jon Ward:
Hatch told Utah voters in his first Senate campaign, in 1976, that he wanted to come to Washington to fight liberal senators like Kennedy. But then he and Kennedy wound up becoming close friends and frequent collaborators on legislation. Hatch gave a lengthy speech in tribute at Kennedy’s memorial service.
During our conversation, Hatch told me that he thinks Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who showed up at a well-attended reception to celebrate Hatch’s chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee and said a few words in his honor, would like to form a friendship with him “like Kennedy had.” For his part, Hatch said he’d like to see Warren become “the new Kennedy.”
We began our conversation talking about his desire to help Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reach across the aisle to work with Democratic lawmakers.
