If former President Donald Trump and his allies have their way, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could find himself in a very unfamiliar position.
He could be demoted out of Republican leadership… making him just another senator.
Several of Trump’s hand-picked candidates for Senate have already made it clear they have no intention of supporting McConnell should they win their elections and the GOP retake control after next year’s midterm election.
Kelly Tshibaka, a Trump-backed primary challenger to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vowed to not only beat the longtime senator… but to oust McConnell, too.
“When I defeat Murkowski and become Alaska’s next U.S. senator, I will not support Mitch McConnell as leader,” she said, according to Axios. “It’s time for new, America First leadership in the Senate.”
Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who is also running for Senate, has likewise promised to force McConnell out.
Greitens adviser Steven Cheung told Axios more will join them as opposition to McConnell in leadership could become a “litmus test” for candidates hoping to win the MAGA crowd.
“If you’re anti-Mitch, your numbers go up.” He told the website. “It’s a test for how Trumpian you are.”
McConnell and Trump had always shared a testy relationship, but worked together to ensure GOP priorities cleared the Senate and to get judges rapidly confirmed to the federal courts.
But the events of Jan. 6 fractured the two beyond repair.
McConnell blamed Trump for the violence at the U.S. Capitol that day. And while he didn’t vote in favor of impeachment, he issued a scathing condemnation of the former president on the Senate floor.
“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell said as he called Trump’s role a “disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
McConnell also suggested that rather than be impeached, Trump should face criminal liability.
“He didn’t get away with anything yet,” McConnell said. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
Trump has since turned his fire on McConnell, slamming him repeatedly in statements as a “broken old crow” and urging Republicans to oust him from leadership now.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September that Trump had met with GOP senators to see if anyone would be willing to take on McConnell but found “little appetite” at the time.
A slate of new faces entering the Senate in 2023 could change that.
McConnell has been the top Republican in the Senate for nearly 15 years, becoming minority leader in 2007… majority leader in 2015… and minority leader again earlier this year.
He’s also known for his mastery of Senate rules and procedure, able to stall and stymy when Republicans are in the minority, and push the GOP agenda through when they’re in control, especially the rapid confirmation of conservative judges.
The Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo, a conservative legal advocate, told The Week in 2019 that McConnell’s impact on the courts will be felt for decades to come, describing him as “the most consequential majority leader, certainly, in modern history.”
As of now, one in four federal judges – and a third of the Supreme Court – were all appointed by Trump, and all were pushed through the Senate by McConnell.
“It’s going to have a significant consequence in terms of judicial decisions for years to come,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told NBC News as he praised the “mostly young” judges as “solid conservatives.”
But if Trump runs again – and wins – he wants someone he can trust in control of the Senate.
And it’s clear that’s no longer Mitch McConnell.