Dear Mitch McConnell: Before leaving Senate, please stand up to Trump before it’s too late | Opinion
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Mitch McConnell won’t run again in 2026
Longtime Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell will not seek reelection next year, he announced Thursday, ending a decades-long run as one of the most powerful Republicans in the country. McConnell, first elected in 1984, is the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history.
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It was the most McConnellian of goodbyes.
As seven-term Sen. Mitch McConnell stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Thursday to announce he would not run for re-election, the Kentucky Republican ran through the highlight reel of his accomplishments, and then ended with this:
“And to the disappointment of my critics, I’m still here, on the job.”
Well, Sen. McConnell, as one of those critics, I’m glad you’re still on the job for the next two years. Because you appear to be one of the last people willing to even question the chaos and stupidity engulfing Washington D.C. right now.
We need you to be stronger.
In your speech, you pointed out the Senate’s strength is rooted in Article 1 of the Constitution. But your Senate colleagues, and those in the House, seem altogether unsure or even ignorant of what their role is in checking the power of the executive branch.
They seem perfectly willing to accept an unelected billionaire running roughshod through government agencies, usurping Congress’ power of the purse to decide what should be funded and what should not.
You know that Elon Musk and his merry band of teenage tech bros are causing real pain in Washington, pain that will soon migrate to Kentucky, where so many people who have voted for you depend on federal aid. You’ve taken pride in the scientific progress made at Kentucky’s universities — are you willing to watch that be haphazardly stripped away?
We need you to stand up.
You have spoken frequently of America’s role in the world, the importance of it standing up to tyranny. And now we watch as President Trump betrays Ukraine and decides its fate with a Russian war criminal, siding with our greatest enemy while ignoring Europe, our greatest ally.
You know this — you have written of Trump’s ignorance of world events, his narcissism, the incredible con job he has pulled on the American people in search of power and more money.
We need you to work.
You are known as a Machiavellian deal maker. Your career has been built on those skills.
Now, we need you to turn the political shamelessness you exhibited in blocking a Supreme Court nominee from a Democratic President to actually convincing your lily-livered colleagues that they are more than handmaidens in some kind of dystopian monarchy.
Use your scheming skills to curb the worst excesses of the Trump administration.
Senator McConnell, we need you to put the country above yourself and your party.
As it stands, historians will judge you poorly for your unscrupulous amassing of personal power, for eroding our democracy through a campaign finance system that allowed dark money to prevail at every turn, and for creating a Supreme Court that has turned this country back in time.
Your reputation is in tatters with the left-leaning half the country. But stunningly, many say MAGA World hates you even more today, calling you, the man who created the modern Republican Party, a Republican in Name Only.
Your reputation has nothing left to lose, but so much to gain from a grateful 48 percent of the nation that opposes what is happening right now.
America is facing a dire future. Voting against a few of Trump’s worst Cabinet picks is a start but hardly what’s needed in this crucial time.
You must do more.
Kentucky needs you. Your country needs you.
And your legacy needs you most of all.
This story was originally published February 20, 2025 at 1:14 PM.
