McConnell to lead Senate GOP
Democrat Schumer will assume post of minority leader
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans re-elected Mitch McConnell on Wednesday to be majority leader next year while Democrats picked Chuck Schumer to lead them, setting the chief actors as the chamber prepares for an agenda that will be dominated by Donald Trump and the GOP.
McConnell, 74, is a discreet but deadly master of the Senate’s legislative chess game. His role will be to steer GOP bills to the desk of a president whose name he barely spoke during a tumultuous campaign in which many Republicans viewed Trump and his incendiary comments on Muslims, veterans and others as political poison.
“It’s time to accept the results of the election, to lower the tone and to see what we can do together to make progress for the country,” McConnell, from Kentucky, told reporters Wednesday.
As Senate minority leader, Schumer will assume his weakened party’s most powerful remaining post as it struggles to define its role in a Republicandominated government.
The New Yorker’s ascension from his No. 3 spot has been a virtual lock since last year, when he cemented votes for the job after current Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced he’d retire. Most of each party’s leaders will remain in their posts an ironic stability following an election that seemed to show a demand by voters for change.
McConnell and Schumer faced no opposition at separate closed-door meetings. Later Wednesday, Schumer visited McConnell in his office, telling a reporter afterward: “First meeting. Working out things.”
Republicans will control the White House, House and Senate but their potential Achilles’ heel is the Senate, which they will dominate 52-48. Assuming Republicans don’t eliminate the rule allowing filibusters, Schumer should be able to keep the GOP from the 60 votes they’d need on some issues to break the procedural delays, potential leverage for bargains.
“Where we can work together we will,” Schumer told reporters about Trump, with whom he shares an affection for TV sound bites and sharp elbows. But Schumer said he’s also told the president-elect, “On issues where we disagree, you can expect a strong and tough fight.”
Many Democrats will feel pressure to back Republicans on other issues. Twenty-five of the 33 Senate seats up for 2018 re-election are held by Democrats and their two allied independents, including several from Republican states like Montana and West Virginia, and they’ll have to find ways to appeal to constituents.