There may be no politician who Donald Trump despises so intensely and yet owes so much as Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Especially after learning what the longtime Senate Republican leader had to say about the leader of his party in a just-published biography.
McConnell blamed the president-elect for “urging an insurrection” on January 6, 2021, and for his followers “attacking the Capitol as a direct result.” Speaking later to the Senate, he said: “I’m not at all conflicted about whether what the president did is an impeachable offense.” In his eyes it was “a disgraceful dereliction of duty” and “further evidence of Donald Trump’s complete unfitness for office.”
The senator said he hoped Trump would pay a price for January 6, yet he handed him a get-out-of-jail free card.
When McConnell could have given substance to his moral outrage, he crumpled and blocked Trump’s removal from office after his second impeachment, thus clearing the way for the political resurrection of the man he called a “dumb son of a bitch” and considered morally unfit to be president.
A tumultuous relationship
In a new biography, The Price of Power by Michael Tackett, McConnell is quoted calling Trump “not very smart, irascible, nasty” and a “despicable human being.”
Trump has said the senator “is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling hack.” McConnell has shrugged off such attacks as well as a racist attack on his wife, Elaine Chao, who Trump called his “China-loving wife, Coco Chow.” The Taiwan-born Chao had been Trump’s secretary of transportation until resigning in protest over the January 6 insurrection.
McConnell reportedly briefly considered supporting the 2021 impeachment and probably could have corralled enough of his colleagues to make sure Trump could never again be president. Instead, he rescued Trump.
Was it a lack of moral courage that led him to protect Trump or a cynical partisan ploy?
That shame will help define his legacy as McConnell steps down from his leadership post, but not from the Senate.Trump’s most lasting legacy may be one made possible by McConnell’s legislative slickness, partisan passion, and just plain hypocrisy, and it will endure long after both men are long gone: a further and devastating swing to the Right in the federal courts.
McConnell, 82, likes to think of himself as an institutionalist, staunchly defending Senate traditions and rules, and he is – sometimes. More often, that’s just a cynical defense employed when it suits him and shoved aside when it doesn’t. He has appropriately called himself the “proud guardian of gridlock.”
His service to Trump started before the reality TV performer was elected. It began March 16, 2016, weeks after justice Antonin Scalia died, and president Barack Obama – whom McConnell once vowed to make a “one-term president” – nominated Judge Merrick Garland to succeed him. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, declared it was “too close” to the election, nearly eight months away, and refused even to hold hearings on the nomination.
Republicans made the Supreme Court a rallying issue for conservative voters that fall. The newly elected Trump quickly nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy. McConnell conveniently forgot his own rule four years later when Ruth Bader Ginsburg died shortly before the 2020 election. He rammed through the Senate the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett only eight days before the election.
In those four years, the Senate GOP leader delivered what Justice Samuel Alito has called “The McConnell Court.” Quality and qualifications were irrelevant; the goal was packing the federal benches with unqualified ideological conservatives and blocking everyone else.
He also shares responsibility for the Supreme Court’s low standing in American public opinion by blocking all calls for the Senate to investigate alarming conflict of interest allegations against Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Experience suggests that if the alleged offenders were liberals and not the Supreme Court’s two most conservative voices, he would behave differently.
Trump may take credit (as he does for everything) for the conservative judges but he is indebted to McConnell for having put more tushes on the benches – in his case, all fervent Republicans – in one term than any president since Jimmy Carter.
The foundation of his power in the Senate is built on his skills as a prolific fundraiser, champion of corporate money in politics, and adamant foe of campaign finance reform.
What comes next?
MCCONNELL IS stepping down from the GOP leadership – the longest run in Senate history – but not quitting. He will be taking on a new role that could clash with Trump’s agenda.
He will be chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, giving him a platform to get more engaged in foreign policy. A top priority will be protecting aid to Ukraine against assault by the GOP’s isolationist wing, including incoming vice president JD Vance.
McConnell has been a strong and consistent supporter of Israel since coming to the Senate in 1985. Most recently, he praised Israel’s “unshakable resolve” in the war against Hamas and spoke out against efforts to block some arms to Israel. One pro-Israel lobbyist said he has been helpful over the years in providing insights on possible problems among his colleagues though not an out-front advocate.
McConnell has told colleagues he felt “liberated” stepping down from the leadership. With two more years remaining in his seventh term, it remains to be seen if he will be liberated enough to challenge the president he once considered unfit for office. It will be seen in his votes on some of Trump’s more questionable cabinet nominees.
His replacement, John Thune, 63, of South Dakota, won’t have that liberty.
Thune, also an institutionalist, will be tested early on by a president who insists on loyalty to him personally above loyalty to the Senate or the Constitution. One Republican activist friendly with Thune told me he and Trump have a “tenuous” relationship.
In addition to rounding up votes for controversial nominees, Thune will face Trump’s demand that the Senate abolish the filibuster and give him latitude for recess appointments to bypass the advise and consent provision of the Constitution. So far he’s been noncommittal.
As Senate majority leader, Thune will have to deal with a demanding and vindictive president who thinks the Senate exists only to serve his needs, a growing number of colleagues who agree, and a House of Representative under MAGA leadership that will be the White House’s loyal lap dog.
One of his predecessors compared the job of Senate leader to herding cats. Some have very sharp claws.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.