McConnell's Legacy Isn't in Congress

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, history's longest-serving Senate leader, plans to step down as after November's elections. The 82-year-old has led Senate Republicans since 2007, but his real legacy will be outside the chamber, analysts say. He helped build a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court by blocking Barack Obama from filling a vacancy and overseeing three confirmations during Donald Trump's administration. He also oversaw the confirmation of more than 200 conservative lower-court judges, often after blocking Obama nominees. "Rulings from judges he helped confirm will be shaping American life for decades to come," writes Sareen Habeshian at Axios. More:

• Three Johns: The New York Times looks at three of the most likely candidates to replace McConnell, the high-ranking senators known as the "Three Johns": Sens. John Thune, John Cornyn, and John Barrasso. Other possibilities in the Senate leadership team include Sens. Joni Ernst and Shelley Moore Capito. (Trump has now put Steve Daines in the mix as well.)

• A "surrender" to Trump: David A. Graham at the Atlantic sees McConnell's decision as a "surrender" to Trump, who McConnell had "gambled that he could outlast." The departure "marks Trump's conquest of the Senate, the one element of the GOP that still offered even a little resistance to the former president," Graham writes.
• "One of the great lions of the Senate": McConnell will be remembered "as one of the most skilled Senate leaders ever," according to editors at the National Review. They praise his knack for deal-making and ability to "muster an extraordinary degree of party unity." "Whoever comes next will have the burden of filling the shoes of a man who deserves to be considered one of the great lions of the Senate," they write.
• How he could end on a high note: The editorial board at the Washington Post is more sparing in its praise for McConnell, but it says that since he's remaining in the Senate until 2027, he "has an opportunity to become a statesman, defending NATO, free trade, democracy, the rule of law, and other things that undergird American strength." For all his "many flaws, there might come a day, sooner than many think, when even his harshest critics miss him," they write.
• Mocked by House Republicans: McConnell was at odds with many House Republicans on issues including aid to Ukraine, and conservatives, including the House Freedom Caucus, reacted to his announcement with glee and mockery, the Hill reports. "Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine)," the caucus said in a post on X.

(More Mitch McConnell stories.)