Mr. McConnell’s most significant accomplishment has been to shift the nation’s courts to the right. After Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, McConnell, as majority leader, refused to even give a hearing to President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace the late Supreme Court justice. The vacancy, perhaps decisively, boosted Trump’s 2016 turnout and allowed the new president to nominate Neil M. Gorsuch to the high court. Mr. McConnell then changed Senate rules to prevent Democrats from filibustering Mr. Gorsuch’s nomination, eliminating the 60-vote threshold that had encouraged previous presidents to nominate less radical candidates. (Democrats had previously removed this system for other judicial candidates.)
Four years later, after rallying Republicans to confirm Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in 2018, Mr. McConnell replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg upon her death six weeks before the 2020 election. I was a candidate for In doing so, he set aside arguments he made in 2016 that it was inappropriate to confirm new justices in an election year.As a result, the Supreme Court reversed Roe vs. Wade By 2022, conservatives will control the federal courts for at least another generation. Mr. McConnell also won the approval of hundreds of lower court judges after blocking many of Mr. Obama’s nominees for the same slot.
McConnell also changed the Senate. While in the minority, he refined and expanded the use of parliamentary procedures, particularly the filibuster, to obstruct Democrats. In 2010, he boasted that the “most important thing” he wanted to accomplish was to make Obama a one-term president. When Republicans had unified control of the government, Trump forced a vote on the 2017 tax cut bill that expanded the debt and, despite his best efforts, failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I couldn’t.
Even though McConnell played hard, he also knew when and how to make a deal. He took seriously his responsibility to avoid hitting the federal debt limit. He and then-Vice President Joe Biden worked together to keep the country from going over the fiscal cliff in 2012.
Mr. Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, which adopted a style of politics that was rough even for Mr. McConnell, ultimately destroyed the longtime Senate majority leader. McConnell’s six-year term as majority leader ends in 2021, when Democrats unexpectedly won Georgia’s two Senate seats in runoff elections. This was mainly due to Trump’s election denialism reducing Republican turnout.
The Capitol invasion took place on January 6, 2021, the day after these run-off elections. McConnell called Trump’s actions a “disgraceful dereliction of duty” and said the then-president had “a real and moral responsibility.” However, even though seven Republican senators supported conviction, they voted to acquit Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. That mistake once again came back to haunt the nation, including Mr. McConnell’s. If he had collected nine more Republican votes in addition to his own, Trump might not have been eligible to run again in 2024. Instead, Mr. Trump is poised to become the Republican nominee for the third time, and Mr. McConnell is increasingly at odds with his party. If Trump wins, there will be a much more flexible Republican leadership in Congress than there was in his first term.
Mr. McConnell worked in President Gerald Ford’s Justice Department and was elected to the Senate seat in 1984 with the support of President Ronald Reagan. More recently, he has struggled with Republican populists who reject his understanding of conservatism. Mr. McConnell has maintained a Reaganite belief in America’s role in the world. This month, he convinced 21 Senate Republicans to support a $95 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, despite Trump’s opposition. Now he is pushing the House to pass the bill.
In a floor speech Wednesday, McConnell acknowledged that his party had changed under him, but vowed to remain true to its principles until his Senate term ends in January 2027. Minority leaders have a chance to become politicians who champion NATO and free trade. , democracy, the rule of law, and other things that underpin America’s strength. “As long as I breathe on this earth, I will defend American exceptionalism,” he said. Despite McConnell’s many flaws, the day when even his harshest critics miss him may come sooner than many think.