Mitch McConnell announced the impending close of his four-decade Senate career Thursday, underscoring a remarkable legacy of turning American government rightward but also capping a fading era in Republican politics.
McConnell’s retirement announcement, made in a midday Senate floor speech, comes nearly a year after he announced that he would step down as Republican leader — and after a decade of watching a growing number of his colleagues, and the party he helped shape, slide toward President Donald Trump’s populism.
McConnell’s own relationship with Trump has devolved in that time. The pair maintained a transactional alliance during the first Trump administration, with McConnell using his control of the Senate floor and a flurry of presidential nominations to dramatically reshape the federal judiciary — arguably the Kentucky Republican’s main political obsession.
He flicked at the importance of the courts to his work in the Senate during his speech Thursday: “I’ve been honored to perform my role in confirming judges who understand their role.”
