This year is no differentbut why the record-high spend? In 2015 and 2019, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. [111], In 2014, Republicans gained control of the Senate, and McConnell became majority leader; he used his newly heightened power to start what was considered "a near blockade of Obama's judicial appointments." If President Trump were still in office, I would have carefully considered whether the House managers proved their specific charge. [155] The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 908. "I've got better things to do with my time," McConnell told a local radio station. But at What Cost? In 1997, he founded the James Madison Center for Free Speech, a Washington D.C. based legal defense organization. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, arrive to speak to reporters following a closed-door strategy session that included Vice President Mike Pence, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. Elly McConnell is an environmentalist who was born in 1972. Above, McConnell speaks to reporters following the Senate Republican policy . Elly McConnell, Claire McConnell, and Porter McConnell are Mitch Mcconnell's three children. "[132] Kavanaugh was confirmed on October 6. Getty Images. [220], McConnell's detractors have called him by a number of nicknames, including "Moscow Mitch",[221] "Cocaine Mitch",[221] the "Grim Reaper",[178] "Darth Vader",[222] "Rich Mitch",[223] "Nuclear Mitch",[222] "Midnight Mitch",[224] and "Old Crow". has anyone been to the bottom of lake tahoe. [112][113] Later in a 2019 interview, McConnell credited himself for the large number of judicial vacancies created in the last two years of Obama's presidency. [10] McConnell said his family "almost went broke" because of costs related to his illness. Senate Leader's Slave-Holding Ancestors Discovered Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said recently he opposes paying government reparations to the descendants of American slaves, has a family history deeply entwined in the issue: Two of his great-great-grandfathers were slave owners. [30], From 1997 to 2001, McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the body charged with securing electoral victories for Republicans. [95] McConnell called for delaying the Senate trial until after Joe Biden's inauguration. [105] In June 2009, following President Obama's nominating Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice, McConnell and Jeff Sessions opined that Sotomayor's seventeen years as a federal judge and over 3,600 judicial opinions would require lengthy review and advocated against Democrats hastening the confirmation process. ", "McConnell won't agree to reconvene Senate early for impeachment trial", "In Senate vote, McConnell opposes Trump impeachment trial's constitutionality", "Mitch McConnell delayed Trump's impeachment trial. [116] Under McConnell's direction, Senate Republicans refused to take any action on the Garland nomination. Here's what's the usual partisan politics and what isn't", "Mitch McConnell filibusters himself after Dems call bluff", "McConnell went 'nuclear' to confirm Gorsuch. After a report came out of Democrats' investigating a second allegation against Kavanaugh, McConnell said, "I want to make it perfectly clear. Answer (1 of 6): His main hobby is to remove all obstacles to corporations contributing anonymously, all they want to the Republican Party, and also making sure no legislation passes congress unless it benefits his donors. [68] However, McConnell disagreed with Trump on multiple subsequent occasions. [136] In September 2020, following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, he announced the Senate would vote on Trump's nominated replacement. President Trump's enabler in chief is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to a new article by my guest, Jane Mayer, in The New Yorker. Redmon and McConnell had three children: Elly McConnell, Porter McConnell, Claire McConnell. McConnell and Chao do not have any children together. He voted for the Iraq Resolution, which authorized military action against Iraq,[181] and supported the Iraq War troop surge of 2007 in public. He attended the duPont Manual High School. [11], In 1950, when he was eight, McConnell moved with his family from Athens to Augusta, Georgia, where his father, who was in the Army, was stationed at Fort Gordon. Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account to lash out with his petty thoughts about McConnell, whom he thinks sides with the Democrats too much. [203][204][205] Following her divorce from McConnell, Sherrill became a feminist scholar at Smith College and director of the Sophia Smith Collection. [121] McConnell's refusal to hold Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland during Obama's final year in office was described by political scientists and legal scholars as "unprecedented",[122][123] a "culmination of [his] confrontational style",[124] a "blatant abuse of constitutional norms",[54] and a "classic example of constitutional hardball". -. In July 2018, President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. [171], In September 2019, the Morning Consult found that his approval rating had been underwater since the first quarter of 2017, when it was 44% positive and 47% negative. Elaine Chao's Marriage Chao married Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, 75, in 1993 and they are both Republicans. [153][154] He subsequently reversed his position when Trump endorsed the proposed package. Paul Cantanese, McClatchy reporter. "Mitch McConnell has been in office 34 years now," she says, "and for many people in Kentucky, their lives have not only not gotten better, they've gotten worse. So, he was honorably discharged. [231][232][233], In 2015 and 2019, Time listed McConnell as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. [192], In 2008, McConnell faced his closest contest since 1990. His foreign policy views have included support of sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Russia,[180] opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and support of Israel. [158], Speaking on the Hugh Hewitt radio show on April 22, 2020, McConnell suggested that states should be able to declare bankruptcy instead of receiving additional COVID-19 aid funds funds which he implied would be used to save insolvent state pension funds, instead of COVID-19 relief as intended. ", "Morning Consult's Senator Approval Rankings: Q2 2019, Senator Lookup", "America's Most and Least Popular Senators: McConnell loses spot as least popular senator", "Susan Collins surpasses Mitch McConnell as the most unpopular senator in a new poll", "Framing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:A Content Analysis of Democratic and Republican Twitter Feeds", "McConnell vows to be 'grim reaper' of socialist Dem proposals", "Mitch McConnell: 'For the first time in my memory, I agree with Nancy Pelosi', "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 115th Congress 1st Session", "McConnell: Troop Surge In Iraq Showing Early Signs Of Success", "Sen. Mitch McConnell's Political Life, Examined, In 'The Cynic', "Democrats Have Net Gain of Two Senate Seats", "McConnell Attacks Huddleston Part 1 video", "McConnell Attacks Huddleston Part 2 video", "Mitch McConnell Likes The Corny Wordplay With His Political Opponents' Last Names", "Statistics of the congressional election of November 6, 1990", "96 PRESIDENTIAL and CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION STATISTICS", "Conservative challenger takes on top Senate Republican", "McConnell Records Weakest Kentucky US Senate Incumbent Primary Victory in 75+ Years", "Mitch McConnell Wins Re-Election, A.P. McConnell was born February 20, 1942, at Colbert County Hospital, to Addison Mitchell "A.M." McConnell II (1917-1990) and . [225] McConnell is known to embrace several of them; however, he objected strenuously to the nickname "Moscow Mitch". McConnell was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and is the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate. Politician and Family Inheritance. BREAKING: Mitch McConnell's Wife Under Investigation. [6][8], In 1944, at the age of two, McConnell's upper left leg was paralyzed by a polio attack. Now he says the delay makes it unconstitutional", "Trump acquitted, denounced in historic impeachment trial", "McConnell: 'Trump is still liable for everything he did' read full speech", "McConnell blames Trump but voted not guilty anyway", "McConnell on Impeachment: 'Disgraceful Dereliction"" Cannot Lead Senate to 'Defy Our Own Constitutional Guardrails', "Senate Republicans prepared to block Jan. 6 commission", "Which senators supported a Jan. 6 Capitol riot commission", "How the Trump Administration Is Remaking the Courts", "Parties Plot Strategy as Sotomayor Visits Capitol", "McConnell, Bunning agree: They'll vote no on Sotomayor", "Top Republican challenges Kagan's independence", "Senate votes to confirm Kagan to Supreme Court", "This Congress filled the fewest judgeships since 1952. His father died of cancer at age 72 and his mother died from complications from a stroke. "[89][90], After Trump's acquittal, McConnell was noted for his ability to block witnesses, to secure Trump's acquittal, and to maintain party unity during the impeachment process. [125] Gorsuch's nomination was confirmed on April 7, 2017, after McConnell eliminated the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees.[126]. [183], In 1984, McConnell ran for the U.S. Senate against two-term Democratic incumbent Walter Dee Huddleston. [214], In May 2019, McConnell's brother-in-law Gordon Hartogensis, who is married to Chao's sister Grace, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a part of the Labor Department. Circuit Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court. " McConnell himself has benefited because a few years ago, James Chao gave Mitch McConnell a gift between five and twenty-five million dollars that more than quadrupled his net worth overnight ," he continued. "McConnell sees himself at the center and able to influence outcomes," says Shapiro. The election race was not decided until the last returns came in, when McConnell won by 3,437 votes out of more than 1.2 million votes cast, just over 0.4%. [101], McConnell also said that Trump remains subject to the country's criminal and civil laws, stating, "He didn't get away with anything yet." McConnell accused Democrats of creating an "extreme" distortion of Kavanaugh's record during his hearing process. In 2003, he underwent a triple heart bypass surgery to treat blocked arteries at National Naval Medical Center, Maryland. 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