As a hardliner among the conservatives, parliamentary group leader McConnell made life difficult for several US presidents and served former President Trump loyally. But then the Capitol storm broke. Now McConnell is withdrawing.
That was one of the most memorable moments in Mitch McConnell’s long political career: “There is no doubt, no one, that former President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the storm on the Capitol,” said the Republican faction leader in the Senate on February 13, 2021.
The most powerful man on earth fed the rioters wild falsehoods just because he lost the election.
The bizarre thing about this devastating criticism: It came minutes after McConnell and his group had acquitted Trump at his second impeachment trial for storming the Capitol.
McConnell then followed up again in a guest article for the Wall Street Journal. At the time, his strategy was interpreted as meaning that he wanted to delegate to the judiciary the task of holding Trump accountable for inciting his supporters: out of justified fear of Trump loyalists in his own party.
A cornucopia of insults
Since then, the ex-president has never missed an opportunity to kick McConnell, who was his long arm in Parliament for four years, into the dust.
McConnell is a loser, says Trump, alternately calling the quirky senator from Kentucky a grumpy, stubborn party soldier, a son of a bitch, a turtle, or an old crow.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the faction leader, saying he was too willing to compromise and thereby sanctioned Biden’s policies. In return, McConnell has denied Trump any personal conversation and the desired fundamental opposition for over three years.
But the calculation didn’t work out: the appetite in the Republican Party for a return to the pompous Trump style was too great. There is too little interest in the depths of unspectacular technical work.
Voluntary and wise – or forced?
One of the little-noticed skills of life is knowing when it’s time to begin the next chapter in life, McConnell said yesterday as he announced his retirement from parliamentary group leadership.
It is obvious that the more successful Trump is in the primaries, the more he purges the party of undesirables. To what extent the ex-president had a hand in McConnell’s withdrawal remained unclear. Most recently it was even said that McConnell would recommend Trump.
It’s easy to underestimate the 82-year-old lawyer with the charm of a staid agency head: he’s not into grand opera à la Trump, but almost 40 years in the Senate have turned him into a shrewd political fox.
McConnell said yesterday that he still has enough gas in the tank to thoroughly disappoint his critics: In other words, his voice will continue to be heard. Probably like those of Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney or John Bolton: as an old-school conservative who is still allowed to warn in the age of Trump, but is no longer allowed to be at the forefront.
Sebastian Hesse, ARD Washington, tagesschau, February 29, 2024 12:12 p.m