Top Republican Senators are getting ready for the retirement of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, after the 81-year-old had a serious fall.
According to the Spectator World’s Washington DC gossip column, run by the anonymous Cockburn, multiple sources have revealed that Sens. John Barrasso of Wyoming, John Cornyn of Texas, and John Thune of South Dakota, are all reaching out to various other GOP Senators in order to get ready for a leadership vote after McConnell announces his retirement.
Among these men, The Spectator reports that Cornyn, the establishment-backed Republican from Texas, has been “particularly active in his preparations” and is seeking unlikely allies “with whom he has little in common” in an attempt to secure the leadership role.
One name absent from the list of possible successors is Sen. Lindsey Graham, a pro-war member of the Republican Party who has nevertheless allied himself to 45th President Donald Trump politically.
Some have questioned whether Trump’s preferential treatment of Graham may be calculated, aimed at having a strong ally in the Senate should the South Carolina politician succeed McConnell.
The retirement would come as a result of an extended hospitalisation after he fell on March 9 while attending a private fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria hotel at the National Mall in Washington DC, an establishment that was formerly owned by 45th President Donald Trump. McConnell suffered a concussion and a “minor rib fracture.”
One week later, spokesman David Popp revealed that McConnell was being released from hospital, but that “at the advice of his physician, the next step will be a period of physical therapy at an inpatient rehabilitation facility before he returns home.” He eventually left rehab a week later.
However, shortly after the story of the preparation for his incoming retirement broke, McConnell tweeted that he was “looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday,” adding that they had important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.”
I am looking forward to returning to the Senate on Monday. We've got important business to tackle and big fights to win for Kentuckians and the American people.
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) April 13, 2023
Despite the tweet from McConnell, many conservatives celebrated his retirement. “How delicious will it be to see McTurtle crawl off into the swampy sunset?” tweeted American Majority CEO Ned Ryun. “Might have to throw a party to celebrate it.”
Sources: GOP senators preparing for McConnell retirement. . . How delicious will it be to see McTurtle crawl off into the swampy sunset? Might have to throw a party to celebrate it. https://t.co/1lhd7fEapW
— Ned Ryun (@nedryun) April 13, 2023
People think that God does not exist and then they find out: Mitch McConnell might retire because of a fall he took at a fundraiser for his own "leadership fund" held at the Trump Hotel.
— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) April 13, 2023
If Mitch McConnell retires and we’re presented with an opportunity to have a decent senator lead the senate GOP and they pick some loser like Cornyn or Thune, I won’t be mad. I’ll be happy.
Because it will further wake up the Right to the fact D.C. is lost. Go local.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) April 13, 2023
During the fight to elect a House Speaker in January, 45th President Donald Trump suggested that if Republicans were going to fight someone, “we ought to be fighting Mitch McConnell and his domineering, China loving BOSS, I mean wife, Coco Chow.”
The 45th President said that the harm McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao “have done to the Republican Party is incalculable.” Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, among others, put the blame for the severe 2022 election losses, such as Blake Masters in Arizona, squarely at the feet of McConnell.
At the time of the House Speaker fight, McConnell went on a “bipartisan” trip to Kentucky, which included the visitation of a “major project” that Biden’s 2021 infrastructure bill helped fund. Speaking to reporters outside the White House before the trip, Biden said he and McConnell had been “friends a long time.”
According to the most recent polling data, McConnell only has 32% favorability among Republicans, with a 3% higher rating among Democrats, while Trump enjoyed a rating of 77% among Republicans, and 34% among Democrats, just 1% less than McConnell.
March 2023: McConnell v Trump
McConnell Overall Favorability – 31%
McConnell Most Favorable – Democrats – 35%
McConnell Favorability, Own Party – 32%Trump Overall Favorability – 52%
Trump Most Favorable, Own Party – 77%
Trump Favorability, Opposing Party – 34% https://t.co/xQzx7jxF1n pic.twitter.com/CCcAoYLnLP— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) April 13, 2023
