Two people could hardly be more different, and they are now at odds, but the taciturn McConnell and the voluble Trump have at least one thing in common: They want power. Keeping that vacancy open helped elect Donald Trump. He fulfilled that threat in 2016, refusing to confirm Merrick Garland, Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court. In 1987, after Democrats defeated Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, McConnell warned that if a Democratic president “sends up somebody we don’t like” to a Republican-controlled Senate, the GOP would follow suit. He always cared about the courts, though. For most of the 40-plus years I have watched McConnell, first as a reporter covering Kentucky politics and now as a journalism professor focused on rural issues, he seemed to have no great ambition or goals, other than gaining power and keeping it. His success could hardly have been predicted when Senate Republicans elected McConnell as their leader in 2006. His doctor has said the episodes are part of the normal recovery from a concussion McConnell experienced in March, but political circles are concerned about his ability to continue to serve. 30 while talking with reporters at an event in his home state. The impact of that achievement will outlive the 81-year-old Kentuckian, who appeared to freeze during two recent public appearances, one in July 2023 at the U.S. (THE CONVERSATION) Even if Mitch McConnell’s health prevents him from accomplishing his stated goal of serving as Senate Republican leader through 2024, he will still be the longest-serving Senate leader of any party, one who remade the federal judiciary from top to bottom.
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