Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to step down may have been months in the making, but the news took a number of his Republican members by surprise.
McConnell, the longest-serving Senate leader of all time, announced on Wednesday that this Congress would be his last as head of the GOP conference. The outgoing leader faced nearly a year of speculation about his plans beyond the 118th Congress, the result of his sour relationship with former President Donald Trump and a pair of highly publicized medical episodes that prompted concerns about his health.
Despite the questions about his ability to stay on as leader after 17 years in the top job, some GOP senators told the Washington Examiner that they were not expecting the news they received on Wednesday.
“If it hadn’t been a complete surprise to everybody, you would have heard about it by the time we got up this morning,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said.
“I’m not surprised that it was this year; I’m surprised it was this day,” Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) said. “There’s been enough things that he’s talked about or alluded to that you got this feeling that this is his last year in leadership, but I didn’t know that the announcement was coming today.”
“I think the timing of it was a surprise, deciding to do it this week was a surprise,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said. “But he just turned 82. He is clearly mourning the loss of his sister-in-law who was so obviously very close to Elaine and to Mitch.”
Angela Chao, sister to McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, died in a car crash in Texas earlier this month.
“Those two events seem to perhaps have influenced when he chose to do this, the fact that he chose to do it right now, but it sounds like he was prepared to do this much earlier,” Lummis said.
McConnell is revered as one of the greatest political operators of the last century and is famous for his lack of candor with the press. The GOP leader has been notoriously careful about how he presents himself to the media and the larger public, aware that showing signs of vulnerability could lead to questions about his power.
He has also long been hesitant to reveal too much to colleagues, including fellow members, that could be leaked to the media without his approval.
The GOP leader did inform a small number of allies in the upper chamber about his planned announcement, some with as little notice as a few hours, but the remainder of the conference learned the news with the public.
His decision to step away from his leadership post effectively ended a yearlong discussion about his long-term ability to fulfill his duties amid concerns about his age and dissent from conservatives in his conference.
McConnell said during his Wednesday floor speech announcing his decision that he had “been thinking about when” he would deliver the news and had “always imagined a moment when I had total clarity and peace about the sunset of my work, a moment when I am certain I have helped preserve the ideals I so strongly believe.”
“That day arrived today,” he said.
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McConnell told members during a Wednesday meeting that he had made the decision to step down months prior but opted against making an announcement to avoid a prolonged contest for his successor, two senators in the room told the Washington Examiner.
“The good news is, and we can thank McConnell for this, there won’t be a long campaign,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said in reference to the race for the job. He added that he is “still digesting the fact that Mitch is stepping down.”
