WASHINGTON, Feb 28 – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday he would step down as leader, leaving a power vacuum in the party he has led for nearly 17 years, longer than any other leader. party in the chamber. stories.
“I turned 82 last week. The end of my contributions is closer than I would like,” McConnell said on the Senate floor, his voice cracking with emotion. “Father Time remains undefeated. I am no longer the young man who sat in the back hoping my colleagues would remember my name. It’s time for the next generation of leaders.”
The 82-year-old Kentucky lawmaker played a huge role in helping former President Donald Trump build a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, paving the way for landmark rulings backed by conservatives that ended constitutional rights to abortion and expanded gun rights.
It has at times belied McConnell’s personal opposition to Trump, including Trump’s behavior in the run-up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, as well as McConnell’s continued vocal support for efforts to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russian invasion. the opposition of tough Republican opponents.
Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, and McConnell is now minority leader after previously serving as majority leader. McConnell has said he will not run for Senate Republican leader in the party’s November election, meaning he will end his leadership role when the new Congress convenes in January.
McConnell’s departure from the leadership would remove a central figure in negotiations with Democrats and the White House over spending deals to keep the federal government funded and avert a shutdown. His steady command of caucuses contrasted with relatively new Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is struggling to lead his fragile majority.
Last summer, McConnell twice froze while making public remarks that raised questions about his ability to continue in office. Those concerns were not allayed by an August 31 memo from Congress’s doctor, which cleared McConnell to continue on the job.
He said he plans to serve out the remainder of his Senate term, which runs until January 2027. But his departure would mark a step back from his orderly colleague to the boisterous approach of Donald Trump, the front-runner. The Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden and the hardline House Freedom Caucus ahead of the Nov. 5 election of the U.S. president, the full House of Representatives and a third of the Senate.
Now that Republicans must choose a new party leader, pressure from conservatives to toughen up on a spending moderation deal with Democrats could weigh heavily on budget talks and leadership choices.
McConnell announced his plans in the Senate the morning after Trump won Michigan’s Republican primary, continuing his push for the party’s nomination.
“I think the reopening of Trump’s head is his signal to leave the left,” said a former top Senate Republican aide when asked about the timing of McConnell’s move.
McConnell will alienate Trump
McConnell criticized Trump, who has been impeached twice, for falsely claiming that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election. That was the theme of the then-president’s speech on January 6, 2021, shortly before his followers stormed the US Capitol.
The Senate leader voted to acquit Trump of inciting the riot, but pushed back in a Senate speech, saying he bore “practical and moral responsibility” for the riot on Capitol Hill.
“American citizens have attacked their own government,” McConnell said at the time. ” They did it because the most important man on Earth fed them wild falsehoods — because he was angry that he lost the election.”
McConnell’s hard-line approach to governance was on display in early 2016 when he orchestrated a Republican obstruction of Merrick Garland’s nomination for a vacant US Supreme Court seat.
He argued that November was too close to the presidential election and that voters should be left to decide the direction of the high court in casting their votes for the president.
In 2020, McConnell struck again, this time just weeks before the next presidential election. Taking the opposite approach, he defeated then-President Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, solidifying a conservative 6-3 majority.
He happily adopted the moniker “The Grim Reaper” for his willingness to hedge against Democratic targets.
Sens. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn and John Barrasso are expected to face off for the top party. It was unclear which other senators might enter the race.
