‘A different seat in the chamber’: What’s ahead for Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate?
Before Mitch McConnell could come to terms with his exit plan, he had to win a campaign within himself.
The Senate Republican leader’s second freeze-up last August — in which he fell silent for more than 30 seconds before cameras — had both shaken his fragile mortality and steeled his headstrong resilience. He resolved to prove to himself — and the world — that he could recover to full strength.
When the Kentucky Republican eventually felt good about his health at the end of November, according to a longtime adviser, it allowed McConnell to begin soberly confronting the two issues that would define his
2024: How to sunset his tenure as leader and how to close his fracture with an ascendant former — and possibly future — president.
The McConnell aide insists the questions were separate — that the Kentuckian’s decision to relinquish power wasn’t related to Donald Trump’s reemergence as his party’s presidential nominee. But it’s hard to ignore the parallel tracks of the twin decisions.
McConnell, now 82, began drawing up his plan of how he wanted to vacate leadership in January, nearly the same time he instructed his premier political aide, Josh
Holmes, to begin a rapprochement with Trump that would lead to McConnell’s endorsement of Trump eight weeks later. And McConnell will leave his leadership post this November, shortly following a presidential election that could once again place Trump in the White House.
“I think he has signaled the leader of the party is Donald Trump, not Mitch McConnell,” said Brian