Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has a rather gloomy picture of the Republican-controlled Senate, which, he explained, can't do much of what it wants despite having control of both houses of Congress.

"The Senate Democrats have a big enough number to prevent us from doing things," McConnell told local outlet WYMT.

The kinds of "things" he and his fellow Republicans just can't get done: defund Planned Parenthood and, well, just about everything else.

"They prevented us from doing any of the bills that appropriate money for the government, thereby forcing a negotiation when we go back in after Labor Day, which I’ll be engaged in with the administration and others to try to sort out how much we’re going to spend and where we're going to spend it," explained McConnell.

Pressed on what he and his fellow Senate Republicans were going to do about Planned Parenthood, McConnel said, "We just don't have the votes to get the outcome that we'd like."

"I would remind all of your viewers: The way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it," said the majority leader condescendingly. "The president has made it very clear he's not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that's another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood."

Despite controlling both houses of Congress, the only way to really accomplish anything, claimed McConnell, was to win the presidency—and to do that we have to win some swing-states.

"Whoever our nominee is is going to have to appeal in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado, Nevada — those states that tend to go back and forth," he said. "Looking at the polling data in those key states, I think people are ready to go in a different direction. We just have to nominate somebody that they find appealing."

McConnell also didn't seem very hopeful about improving the perception of the GOP brand, saying, "I'm not sure it's possible."

"People are not happy with the condition of the country," he explained, adding that it's "logical and normal, if you’re not happy with the condition of the country, to blame the people you elect whose responsibility it is to try to do something about that."

The Republican Senate leader did at one point muster up some optimism, saying (despite Democrats blocking their agenda) that "we've made substantial progress in getting the Senate back to work."

"I'm sorry that it's not noticed by more people, but that's a fact," said McConnell.

Partial transcript via Roll Call. Video via WYMT.