Mitch McConnell steps down as Republican Senate leader
Longest-serving Senate leader in history will resign from his position in November.
Mitch McConnell, the US Senate’s longest-serving party leader – and the most senior Republican hostile to Donald Trump – has announced he will step down in November, triggering a battle for succession.
The 82-year-old Kentucky senator is said to have not spoken to Mr Trump since the former president’s supporters rioted at the US Capitol three years ago, and was one of those who refused to go along with his false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.
Mr Trump, 77, regularly insulted Senator McConnell and his wife, Elaine Chao, who served in the former president’s cabinet but quit after January 6, 2021.
Despite that, Senator McConnell enabled some of Mr Trump’s proudest achievements by steering through three Supreme Court judges, including the rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett in the final weeks of his presidency.
Senator McConnell also frustrated Democrat president Barack Obama’s attempt to nominate Merrick Garland in 2016, allowing Mr Trump to nominate Neil Gorsuch.
“As Ecclesiastes tells us: to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven,” Senator McConnell said on the Senate floor in a surprise announcement on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).
“To serve Kentucky in the Senate has been the honour of my life. To lead my Republican colleagues has been the highest privilege. But one of life’s most underappreciated talents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter.”
Although exiting his leadership role, he said he would serve out his six-year term in the Senate, which ends in January 2027.
Speculation about his future flared last year after he suffered a concussion in a fall and later had two public episodes in which he appeared to freeze while speaking.
Three Republicans named John have long been seen as potential replacements: John Thune, 63, the party whip from South Dakota; John Cornyn, 72, from Texas, who served as majority whip for four years, and; John Barrasso, 71, from Wyoming, who is third in the Senate hierarchy as Republican conference chairman.
None belongs to the younger generation of Trump loyalists, and the internal election of Senator McConnell’s replacement is likely to become another bitter battle.
Mr Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr, recently urged the former president’s Make America Great Again movement – which has a firm grip on the Republican Party – to fight against the so-called RINOs, a disparaging term used for anyone not deemed sufficiently loyal to Trump. RINO stands for Republican in name only. Senators Thune and Cornyn in particular are seen by MAGA as part of the McConnell regime.
Hours before Senator McConnell’s revelation, Josh Hawley, a pro-Trump senator from Missouri, said: “Mitch McConnell is the least popular politician in America, a symbol of everything that’s wrong with Washington.”
With Mr Trump pushing his own candidates to take over the Republican national committee, the Senate is seen as the last bastion of the “old” pre-Trump Republican Party.
The succession contest is likely to produce not only the party’s leader in the Senate but also in the chamber itself because the Republicans have a strong chance of retaking the overall majority in November’s elections. One-third of seats are up for grabs.
Senator McConnell became party leader in the Senate in 2006 and won nine straight elections to hold on to the post. Despite his disdain for Mr Trump he did not support either of the moves to impeach the former president, effectively ending any chance of conviction.
He endorsed Ronald Reagan’s view of America’s role in the world and fought against the growing tide of isolationism pushed by Mr Trump.
“I am unconflicted about the good within our country and the irreplaceable role we play as the leader of the free world,” Senator McConnell said. “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. For as long as I am drawing breath on this Earth, I will defend American exceptionalism.”
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