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Politics|‘Liberated’ From Leadership, McConnell Is Ready to Pick His Own Fights
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/us/politics/mitch-mcconnell-senate-leadership.html
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The last time President Donald J. Trump was in the White House, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who was then the majority leader, played a crucial role in empowering him and pushing through his agenda.
But Mr. McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader, is stepping down from that post in January. This time he appears to be positioning himself to do the opposite, choosing to focus on issues that could put him at odds with Mr. Trump on policy and personnel at the dawn of his second term.
In recent days, including during a late-night session of votes on the Senate floor last week, Mr. McConnell, 82, has told colleagues that his impending exit from leadership has left him feeling “liberated.”
He has signaled skepticism about some of the president-elect’s most divisive picks for his administration, staying mum on their selections and saying last week that the withdrawal of former Representative Matt Gaetz from consideration as attorney general was “appropriate.” And Mr. McConnell has telegraphed that as he moves to cement his legacy in his remaining time in the Senate, he plans to prioritize two issues that just happen to be subjects on which he disagrees strongly with Mr. Trump.
Mr. McConnell, whose current term ends in 2027 and who has not said whether he will seek another, has said he plans to focus intently during the next two years on advancing his interventionist strain of foreign policy, which flies in the face of the president-elect’s “America First” approach. He also wants to concentrate on preserving the Senate’s institutional independence at a time when Mr. Trump, who will have a governing trifecta in January, has made clear that he means to bend the chamber to his will.
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