Undisputed leader of the Republicans in the Senate, veteran of American politics and ardent defender of aid to Ukraine, Mitch McConnell created a surprise on Wednesday by announcing that he would leave office in November.
“I stand before you today (…) to tell you that this mandate will be my last as leader of the Republicans,” declared the 82-year-old elected official during a speech to Congress.
This surprise speech was greeted with standing ovations from elected officials from both sides in the hemicycle of the upper house. Mitch McConnell, however, has not said whether he will leave his post as senator from Kentucky, which he has held since 1985.
Opponent of Barack Obama
Leader of the Republicans in the Senate since 2015, this fine connoisseur of the mysteries of power found himself on the front line of the fight against the policies of the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama (2009-2017), but also to support Donald Trump, who came to power in January 2017. For years, he greedily claimed the nickname “Gravedigger”, accustomed to burying the hopes of his Democratic adversaries. Within the upper house of Congress, he worked hard to appoint Supreme Court judges, who canceled the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion in 2022, to the great despair of American progressives.
Defender of American aid to kyiv
“During my years in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and I have rarely agreed on our policies,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday. “But I am proud that we have come together in recent years to move the Senate forward at critical moments,” he said, referring, among other things, to the assault on the Capitol, the fight against Covid and the war in Ukraine. .
In recent years, Mitch McConnell, a patient negotiator in the shadows, has indeed distinguished himself as one of the greatest defenders of American aid to Kiev, tirelessly pleading for the sending of new funds to this country invaded by Russia.
In this fight, Mitch McConnell, who embodies a traditional, rather pro-war wing of the Republican Party, had to deal with the arrival in Congress of Donald Trump’s lieutenants, espousing increasingly isolationist positions.
This radical change has been obvious in recent weeks, with the blocking of an envelope of 60 billion dollars to Ukraine and the threats of the former president made towards NATO allies – so many twists and turns highly criticized by Mitch McConnell.
A large section of the Republican camp shares Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about NATO members / 7:30 p.m. / 2 min. / Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Several major infrastructure projects
Under the Democratic presidency of Joe Biden, a man he worked alongside for years in the Senate, Mitch McConnell also worked on the passage of several major projects supported by both parties, notably on infrastructure.
Joe Biden assured Tuesday that the two leaders had “confidence in each other” and said he was “heartbroken” to learn of his departure.