Mitch McConnell: 'Bourbon summit' with President Obama will occur

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Mitch McConnell said Saturday the "bourbon summit" with President Obama will occur.

McConnell was referencing Obama's remark that he would enjoy having a bourbon with McConnell, a change in position for the president, who previously said he wouldn't want to have a drink with the senator.

"Some folks don't think I spend enough time with Congress. 'Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?' Really? Why don't you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?" Obama joked at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April, 2013.

But after Republicans captured control of the Senate in the midterm elections, that drink came up again.

"I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell," the president said on Nov. 5.

"I'm sure it will happen," McConnell said Saturday.

McConnell also spoke out against the Obama administration's "war on coal," and declared his intention to start his own war with Obama over jobs in the coal industry. "What the administration has done to the coal industry is a true outrage," he said. Kentucky's coal industry lost 7,000 jobs between 2011 and 2013.