Mitch McConnell to step down as top Senate Republican at the end of this Congress

Mitch McConnel­l’s run atop the Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus will soon be over.

The eighty-two year-old Ken­tuck­ian announced today in a speech on the Sen­ate floor that he will hand off lead­er­ship of the cau­cus to some­body else (like John Cornyn or John Thune) at the end of this Con­gress and become a back­bencher for the remain­der of his cur­rent term end­ing in 2027. Thus, even if Sen­ate Repub­li­cans win a major­i­ty this autumn, McConnell won’t be major­i­ty leader again.

“As Eccle­si­astes tells us, ‘To every­thing there is a sea­son, and a time to every pur­pose under Heav­en.’ To serve Ken­tucky in the Sen­ate has been the hon­or of my life. To lead my Repub­li­can col­leagues has been my high­est priv­i­lege,” said McConnell in floor remarks. “But one of life’s most under­ap­pre­ci­at­ed tal­ents is to know when it’s time to move on to life’s next chapter.”

“So, I stand before you today, Mr. Pres­i­dent and my col­leagues, to say that this will be my last term as Repub­li­can leader of the Sen­ate. I’m not going any­where any­time soon, how­ev­er. I will com­plete the job my col­leagues have giv­en me until we select a new Leader in Novem­ber and they take the helm next January.”

“I will fin­ish the job the peo­ple of Ken­tucky hired me to do as well — albeit from a dif­fer­ent seat in the cham­ber,” McConnell con­tin­ued “I am look­ing for­ward to that. So it’s time for me to think about anoth­er sea­son. I love the Sen­ate. It has been my life. There may be more dis­tin­guished mem­bers of this body through­out our his­to­ry, but I doubt there are any with more admi­ra­tion for it.”

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, ever the gra­cious states­man, issued a state­ment con­grat­u­lat­ing McConnell and wish­ing him well.

“Amer­i­can Democ­ra­cy is based on elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives com­ing togeth­er and bridg­ing their dif­fer­ent points of view to find com­mon ground on behalf of the Amer­i­can peo­ple,” the Pres­i­dent said. “I’m proud that my friend Mitch McConnell and I have been able to do that for many years, work­ing togeth­er in good faith even though we have many polit­i­cal disagreements.”

“Dur­ing his many years of lead­er­ship, we could always speak with each oth­er hon­est­ly and put the coun­try ahead of our­selves. Amer­i­ca is now being rebuilt by the biggest infra­struc­ture law in near­ly sev­en­ty years. We’re mak­ing crit­i­cal invest­ments so our econ­o­my can out­com­pete Chi­na. We’re stand­ing up for our val­ues and our most urgent nation­al secu­ri­ty inter­ests in the world because of it. Amer­i­ca is mak­ing tremen­dous strides towards cur­ing cancer.”

“There is noth­ing Amer­i­ca can­not do when we do it togeth­er. Mitch has lived the Amer­i­can dream, over­com­ing polio and going on to become the longest-serv­ing Sen­ate leader in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. Jill and I wish the best to Mitch and Elaine.”

The Pres­i­dent is right that McConnell worked with Democ­rats over the years to pass a num­ber of huge­ly impor­tant laws, includ­ing the Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment and Jobs Act and CHIPS and Sci­ence. McConnell has also sup­port­ed finan­cial assis­tance for Ukraine as its fights for its very survival.

But on the oth­er side of the ledger, McConnell has also caused a tremen­dous, appalling amount of dam­age to this coun­try. The list of good and nec­es­sary bills that McConnell fil­i­bus­tered while in the minor­i­ty could fill a book. It is thanks to McConnell and Sen­ate Repub­li­cans that the Sen­ate has failed to act on vot­ing rights, repro­duc­tive rights, cli­mate, hous­ing, edu­ca­tion, and so much more.

McConnell is also the per­son pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the right wing’s pack­ing of the Supreme Court. He infa­mous­ly refused to hold a vote on Mer­rick Gar­land’s nom­i­na­tion in 2016, then turned around just four years lat­er and made sure Trump’s pick Amy Coney Bar­rett got installed on the Court against Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg’s wish­es and against the prece­dent that he him­self had set.

Absurd­ly, McConnell sided with Trump in both of Trump’s impeach­ment tri­als, and that fact should be point­ed out every sin­gle time that Trump and McConnel­l’s rela­tion­ship is dis­cussed. Thanks to McConnel­l’s feck­less­ness, Trump remains in con­trol of the Repub­li­can Par­ty and will like­ly be renom­i­nat­ed for the pres­i­den­cy this sum­mer. McConnell could have avert­ed that by vot­ing to con­vict Trump and bring­ing nine oth­er Repub­li­cans along with him. He refused.

McConnell cru­el­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in efforts to repeal the Patient Pro­tec­tion and Afford­able Care Act, which would have deprived mil­lions of Amer­i­cans of their health­care. McConnell very near­ly suc­ceed­ed in deliv­er­ing a repeal bill to Trump, but was thwart­ed by the late Sen­a­tor John McCain of Arizona.

McConnell has also played a key role in efforts to unleash dark mon­ey in Amer­i­can elec­tions. He’s so well known for this that it’s men­tioned in the third para­graph of his Wikipedia entry: “He led oppo­si­tion to stricter cam­paign finance laws, cul­mi­nat­ing in the U.S. Supreme Court rul­ing Cit­i­zens Unit­ed v. FEC that par­tial­ly over­turned the Bipar­ti­san Cam­paign Reform Act (McCain-Fein­gold) in 2010.”

On bal­ance, McConnell has been a huge­ly neg­a­tive force in this coun­try. It may be cus­tom­ary to extend well wish­es to some­one when they announce their retire­ment, but in our view, it’s also an appro­pri­ate junc­ture to rec­og­nize the harm and dam­age that an irre­spon­si­ble and immoral pub­lic ser­vant has caused.

Five reads about Mitch McConnell’s retirement

• McConnell’s depar­ture as Sen­ate Repub­li­can leader could leave the par­ty with­out an adult in the room in Congress
• The insider’s guide to the McConnell suc­ces­sion race
• These respons­es to McConnell step­ping down are all kinds of fun
• Mitch McConnell Could Have Been One of the Greats, but Trump Beat Him
• Supreme Court’s Immu­ni­ty Gift To Trump Is McConnell’s Legacy

The Sen­ate Repub­li­cans will wait until after the ini­tial results of the Novem­ber 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion are avail­able before pick­ing McConnel­l’s successor.