As the vote count at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this July moved to Kentucky, delegates roundly booed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
I doubt McConnell cared. Just as he relished liberals who called him the “Grim Reaper,” he knew none of his detractors could do what he did electorally or in terms of obstructing Democrats. And more than that, he must surely have known that he was the person most responsible for this moment. It was all set into motion three years ago, when he voted to acquit Donald Trump after the January 6 riot.
McConnell knew what Trump did was morally wrong and said so in his speech explaining his vote in 2021.
“They [rioters] did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth,” he said. “Because he was angry. He had lost an election. Former President Trump’s actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
Had McConnnell voted to convict Trump, he likely would have convinced nine other senators to join him alongside the seven Republicans who did vote to convict the former president on that day. That singular decision he made in February of 2021 ensured not just that Trump would return, but that he would return with a vengeance: with a stronger, more MAGA-aligned Senate and a potentially Republican House.
MAGA may hate Mitch McConnell, but he sowed the seeds that has allowed it to grow and thrive.
Like his counterpart in the House, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell focuses singularly on using short-term power to gain long-term power. And he has always been unsparing about using his clout in the Senate and his copious amounts of cash to help Republicans do it.
In 2022, after JD Vance won the nomination for Senate, Republicans feared he would severely underperform if he did not spring into action to hold outgoing Senator Rob Portman’s seat in Ohio. McConnell carpet-bombed the Buckeye airwaves in response.
This came despite the fact that Vance never had much love for McConnell. Indeed, after Vance came to the Senate, he regularly tried to obstruct McConnell’s push to provide aid to Ukraine in exchange for increased border security.
Now, Vance will become Trump’s vice president, and he will likely also become Trump’s liaison to the Senate, a body that Trump has never particularly understood.
This year, McConnell’s approach to winning Senate races was very similar to what he did for Vance. In Ohio, McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund super PAC dropped $55 million to take out Sherrod Brown, a Democrat in a state Trump won three times. It paid off and Bernie Moreno, a Trump-backed car salesman with significant baggage, pulled off a victory, even though he underperformed Trump.
Right now, Democratic Senator Bob Casey, who comes from one of the most beloved political families, looks like he might lose his Senate seat to Dave McCormick, a political novice. The SLF dropped $38 million to take out Casey. If McCormick pulls this off, he ought to send McConnell some Primanti Brothers sandwiches with extra fries.
Of course, McConnell also is responsible for the conservative Supreme Court majority, given that he ramrodded through judicial confirmations. That majority significantly expanded a sitting president’s immunity for “official acts,” which delayed Trump’s trial for a case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Finally, McConnell’s welcoming back Trump onto Capitol Hill earlier this year all but gave Republicans consent to get behind him. McConnell and Trump have always had an uneasy relationship, but that full-throated endorsement allowed for Republicans to not only hold their nose and get behind Trump, but to happily endorse him and enthusiatically vote for him.
There is some great irony in all of this. Trump regularly pushed McConnell to get rid of the filibuster, which McConnell sees as a bulwark to prevent Democratic excesses and to keep the Senate from moving legislation too quickly. Trump also torpedoed the border-Ukraine bill, which means that Democrats will likely use the filibuster to block any restrictions to immigration that come to the upper chamber. An ardent supporter of aid to Ukraine, McConnell will have trouble passing it through, even if Democrats somehow win the House.
The imbroglio over the border bill in and of itself proved McConnell had lost control of the Republican conference. He will leave his post as Republican leader at the end of this year with his power much diminished.
If there is any comfort for Democrats in the coming Trump presidency, it’s that none of McConnell’s potential successors will be able to wrangle Republicans the way that he did. Few will be as effective at obstruction and confirmation.
The Grim Reaper has finally sowed his harvest.
