February 28, 2024
Well – no one saw that coming…
After having an iron grip on the republican party in the United States Senate for decades – Senator Mitch McConnell has just announced he is stepping down as Republican party leader.
Now – I know a lot of you who are younger or fairly new to politics, see him as an 82-year-old old meme who sometimes has these pauses in the middle of his speech. But what you might not really understand about McConnell is the unquestionable power he has had over the Republican party. He was elected to the Senate in the 1980s and is the longest serving party leader in US history. He led the charge against Obamacare trying to overturn it multiple times when President Obama was in office. He is single handily responsible for ensuring the conservative super majority on this current United States Supreme Court. Yes former President Trump nominated now justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett – but it was McConnell– in an extremely controversial political maneuver – that I actually covered in on this channel – who was responsible for blocking Obama’s Supreme Court nominee and keeping the lane open to confirm three conservatives to the court. McConnell is also responsible for an incredible record of confirming a huge number of conservative federal judges to the bench across the county and its those judges that have gotten us many of those rulings on reproductive care, gun rights and government regulation.
But over his 40 years in the Senate — McConnell has also been known to be a shrewd political operative when it comes to getting Republicans elected and is an absolute champion for the United States on the world stage when it comes to national security and foreign aid – which have normally been associated with conservatives in this country. But it’s those positions along with his pretty open dislike of former President Trump – especially after what happened on January 6th — that now has him – for the first time in his career – on the outside of his own party. And it seems that he is using his own political IQ to decide it’s time to step aside as leader…but not completely.
McConnell says he will stay on as Republican Senate Minority leader until the end of his term this November. But he will remain in the Senate and retain his seat as the senior Senator from Kentucky until his term is up in 2026. It’s very similar to what Speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi is doing – she’s still a representative in the House Speaker. That’s what McConnell says he plans to do.
Now – this is going to open up a heated fight among Senate Republicans for who will take over the party. I can tell you it’ll probably be a senator named John…there are actually three Johns already in the running. John Thune, John Cornyn, and John Barrasso.
Watch McConnell’s full speech on the Senate floor here.
