U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Yesterday, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he is stepping down from his leadership post this November. McConnell said that he would remain as Senator from Kentucky until his term expires in January 2027. That may be an ambitious goal, however, as McConnell is 82 years old and in frail health, having suffered at least two public episodes in the past year where he froze and was unable to speak or communicate.
McConnell is the longest-serving U.S. Senate leader in history, having been either Majority or Minority Leader since 2007. However, his legacy may well focus on a short period of time, during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and involving two particular areas. The first is these presidents’ judicial nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. In particular, McConnell made the controversial (and arguably unconstitutional) move of denying a confirmation hearing for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, after the death of Republican Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. At the time, McConnell gave the flimsy excuse that no Supreme Court justice should be confirmed in an election year.
But just a short time later, not only did McConnell help confirm three Trump nominees to the Supreme Court, one of those nominees, Amy Coney Barrett, was confirmed just eight days before the 2020 elections. These nominees went on to help form the Republican majority that overturned the Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, ruling that there is no federal right to abortion. This ruling, in Dobbs v. Jackson (2022), is one of the most consequential events in U.S. political history and, ironically, has driven Democratic voter enthusiasm and turnout to the point where Democrats have flipped a couple of U.S. House seats from red to blue in special elections, and are in a much stronger position for the 2024 elections.
The second area where Mitch McConnell will be well-remembered is his break with Donald Trump. That occurred in December 2020, when McConnell formally recognized Joe Biden‘s presidential election victory, refusing to go along with Trump’s claim that the election had been stolen from him. Since then, McConnell has become persona non grata with Trump and much of the Republican Party, which has turned into a Trump cult.
During Biden’s presidency, McConnell, likely due to this split with Trump as well as his age and infirmity, seems to have lost much of his power. This also mirrors the troubles the Republican Party is now having. In addition to recent special elections (and quite likely, the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2024 elections) going the Democrats’ way, Republicans are following Trump toward an increasingly likely general election defeat in November. Moreover, in the 2024 presidential primaries, Biden has been overperforming his polling, while Trump consistently underperforms his. Nimrata “Nikki” Haley continues to challenge Trump with a solid number of primary votes, as well as winning delegates in states, like Michigan, that are not winner-take-all.
To top it off, Trump is showing increasin signs of physical and cognitive decline. Last Saturday at the CPAC conference, for example, Trump could not remember his wife Melania’s name, calling her “Mercedes” instead. Then, just hours later, at another speech, Trump forgot one of his own children’s names.
As the Trump/McConnell divide leads to Republican disarray, one of the big things Mitch McConnell is still trying to accomplish is getting more aid to Ukraine to defend itself against Russia‘s invasion (the current proposal also includes aid to Israel and Taiwan). According to McConnell’s speech announcing his retirement as Minority Leader:
I believe more strongly than ever that America’s global leadership is essential to preserving the shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan discussed.
If Leader McConnell proves instrumental in passing this foreign aid package, at least he has the chance to end his Senate leadership on a positive note. Afterward, it is virtually guaranteed that McConnell’s replacement as Senate Minority Leader will be someone younger and more energetic. For example, Sen. John Thune is a top candidate for the post. Accordingly, Democrats may wish they still had the inert McConnell around a little longer.
Photo by PEO ACWA, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/6PfbxU
